Abstract
We treated the severe orthopaedic problems,for example, the deformity, the long bone defect and the severe soft tissue contracture,treated by Ilizarov external fixator for ten years. Ilizarov external fixator was used to stabilize the bone fragments and elongate the bone and soft tissue. The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness and the problem of Ilizarov external fixator.
Materials were 52 patients treated by Ilizarov external fixator.Age was from13 years old to 81 years old. The averaged age was 41.3 years old. The averaged follow up periods was 4 years 5 months.The causes of these diseases were trauma, infection and congenital anomaly etc. We examined the clinical results and the complications of this method.All deformities could be corrected without one patient.The callotasis of these cases were succeeded without one patient.The bone union could be get without one patient.These 2 patients were amputated because of the bleeding due to Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura and the non-healing of infection. The complications of these methods were fracture (4 cases), infection (2 cases), recurrent deformity (1 case), deformity of the talus (2 cases) and abnormal caltification (2 cases). We could get good clinical results but had some complications.
Conclusion was that Ilizarov external fixator was useful for the treatment of the various kinds of the complicated orthopeadic problems and there were some complications as we used Ilizarov external fixator for the elongation of the soft tissue and bone.
The abstracts were prepared by Mr Simon Donell. Correspondence should be addressed to him at the Department of Orthopaedics, Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, Level 4, Centre Block, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UY, United Kingdom.
