Monteggia fracture
fracture of the proximal third of the ulna with dislocation of the proximal head of the radius
The Monteggia fracture is a fracture of the proximal third of the ulna with dislocation of the proximal head of the radius. It is named after Giovanni Battista Monteggia.
Causes
Mechanisms include:
Fall outstretched hand with the forearm in excessive pronation (hyper-pronation injury). The ulna fractures in the proximal one-third of the shaft due to extreme dislocation. Depending on the impact and forces applied in each direction, degree of energy absorption determines pattern, involvement of the radial head and whether or not open soft tissue occurs.
Direct blow on back of upper forearm would be a very uncommon cause. In this context, isolated ulnar shaft fractures are most commonly seen in defence against blunt trauma (e.g. nightstick injury). Such an isolated ulnar shaft fracture is not a Monteggia fracture. It is called a 'nightstick fracture'.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Monteggia fracture” is fracture of the proximal third of the ulna with dislocation of the proximal head of the radius. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Monteggia, fracture and proximal, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1946035. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Monteggia fracture” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.