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Concept
External fixation
Summary
External fixation is a surgical treatment wherein Kirschner pins and wires are inserted and affixed into bone and then exit the body to be attached to an external apparatus composed of rings and threaded rods — the Ilizarov apparatus, the Taylor Spatial Frame, and the Octopod External Fixator — which immobilises the damaged limb to facilitate healing. As an alternative to internal fixation, wherein bone-stabilising mechanical components are surgically emplaced in the body of the patient, external fixation is used to stabilize bone tissues and soft tissues at a distance from the site of the injury.
In Classical Greece, the physician Hippocrates described an external fixation apparatus composed of leather rings connected with four wooden rods from a Cornel tree to splint the fracture of a tibia bone.
In 1840, Jean-Francois Malgaigne described a spike driven into the tibia and held by straps to immobilise a fractured tibia. In 1843 he used a claw-like device to percutaneously hold the fragments of a fractured patella.
Clayton Parkhill of Denver, Colorado and Albine Lambotte of Antwerp, Belgium independently invented the modern concept of unilateral external fixation, in 1894 and 1902, respectively. Lambotte was the first to use threaded pins, however, his device necessitated initial, open fracture reduction and then pin insertion and fixator placement.
In 1938, Raoul Hoffmann of Geneva, Switzerland, building on the work of others, realized that major improvements were essential to make the external fixator more clinically relevant. He developed a technique based on closed reduction with guided percutaneous pin placement. Hoffmann’s technique exemplified the first application of minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery.
In the 1950s, in the USSR, Dr. Gavriil Ilizarov devised and developed and applied the Ilizarov apparatus for treating and resolving fractures, deformities, and defects of the bones of the limbs. A metal frame encircles the limb is attached to the underlying bone by crossing (X) pins inserted through the bone and limb.
Official source
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