Abstract
1. The conservative school of treatment of fractures of the tibia, which bases part of its criticism of internal fixation on the ultimate risk of amputation, does not often publish its own rates of amputation.
2. Statistics from a hospital that treats one-third of closed fractured tibiae and two-thirds of compound fractures by internal fixation are therefore put up as a basis for criticism.
3. Comparisons are made with the few available statistics in the literature of conservative treatment.
4. Almost all of the causes for secondary amputation are now curable and in recent years the number of limbs being saved is increasing.
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