Chronic elbow dislocation has a low incidence, but high disability rate, often leads to complications such as stiffness and instability, whose management is still a huge challenge in orthopedics traumatology. The mainstream strategy now is to reduce the elbow after extensive soft tissue release, repair or reconstruct collateral ligaments, stabilize the elbow with a hinged external fixator, and start rehabilitation as soon as possible. However, as evidence supporting treatment approaches comes mostly from small case series and case reports, controversies still remain in some intraoperative issues, such as the choice of surgical approach, the indications and methods of triceps lengthening and the reconstruction of ligaments. Combining relevant literature and clinical experience, the authors discussed the research progress in diagnosis and treatment of chronic elbow dislocation, suggesting that clinical doctors should focus on prevention rather than treatment of this disease, and advocated further reducing the incidence and disability rate of chronic elbow dislocation.