The Jaipur foot was developed for barefoot amputees by Professor P. K. Sethi. He used local artisans and readily available materials. The prosthesis was cheap and could be made in one hour. It enabled amputees to work in rural conditions, muddy and wet fields and to climb trees. It has been widely used in India, South East Asia and Africa, where local variations to the design have now been made.

This paper describes how we came to understand the pathophysiology of Volkmann’s ischaemic contracture with references to relevant papers in this Journal, and the investigation and management of acute compartment syndrome is briefly discussed.