Table Of ContentThe Basic Principles of External Skeletal Fixation
Using the Ilizarov and Other Devices
Leonid Nikolaevich Solomin
Editor
The Basic Principles
of External Skeletal
Fixation Using the Ilizarov
and Other Devices
Second Edition
Editor
Leonid Nikolaevich Solomin, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
R.R. Vreden Russian Research Institute
of Traumatology and Orthopedics
St. Petersburg
Russia
Professor of the Surgery Chair
Medical Faculty of Saint Petersburg
State University
St. Petersburg
Russia
Honourable Professor of Russian Ilizarov
Scientifi c Center “Restorative Traumatology
and Orthopedics”
Kurgan
Russia
ISBN 978-88-470-2618-6 ISBN 978-88-470-2619-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2619-3
Springer Milan Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012956313
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This book is devoted to our Teachers.
This book is intended for those, who got connected with the External Fixation
and still have a desire to learn it in such a way as to improve it.
Foreword
Basic Principles of External Fixation, now in its second edition, has become a standard textbook
for those interested in external fi xation. The second edition extends well beyond the Ilizarov
technique and its technology and now includes advances such as six-axis deformity correction.
There are also new applications for the treatment of the spine, which is not usually considered
for external fi xation, and for cosmetic surgery of the limbs. In expanding on the fi rst edition,
Solomin has not only updated his vast contributions but has also added new material by
numerous other authors, from Russia and around the world. No other book on external fi xation
is as comprehensive as this one. Solomin is to be congratulated for his efforts in recognizing
the need for a new edition even though the previous one is by no means out of date. Indeed, this
second edition reminds us that external fi xation is an ever-evolving technology and that to stay
current requires fresh, authoritative, and instructive publications such as this one.
Dror Paley, M.D., FRCSC
Director of Paley Advanced
Limb Lengthening Institute
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
vii
Dear Colleagues!
With this book, the authors have provided a resource that allows readers to fully explore the
techniques and applications inspired by the method of the academician G.A. Ilizarov. Ilizarov’s
genius was to create not only a methodology and the equipment to carry it out, but also to set
forth a unique philosophy that quickly found support and further development from experts all
over the world. Thus, distraction osteogenesis, management of the regeneration and morpho-
genesis of body tissues, the use of minimally invasive techniques, the stability of bone-frag-
ment fi xation, and the importance of early weight-bearing revolutionized orthopedic surgery in
the 20th century. These original approaches have continued to undergo re fi nement and
modi fi cation during the third millennium.
Of equal importance with the Ilizarov approach is the understanding that the role of external
fi xation is not as an absolute alternative to other forms of treatment, but as a primary method
that is deeply integrated with other aspects of orthopedic surgery. An essential requirement of
any orthopedist performing external fi xation is that he or she must have suf fi cient skills to
recognize and manage possible complications, including non-unions and osteomyelitis. This
manual is therefore an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration for experts who are able to
“think outside the box”; that is, who have the ability to exploit the many possibilities of the
Ilizarov approach to treat a wide variety of orthopedic pathologies. External fi xation is a
method of a thousand permutations and as such often requires the willingness to improvise,
while using the algorithms, advice, and recommendations provided in this monograph as guid-
ance. Like a game of chess, for each patient there are a typically a large number of subsequent
moves, e.g., regarding the details of the frame, that follow once the initial structure is chosen.
To learn the “rules of the game” to avoid the mistakes made by several generations of orthope-
dists, and to not box oneself into an orthopedic “checkmate in three moves” is why this book
has been written.
Alexander V. Gubin, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of the Russian Ilizarov Scientifi c Center
for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopedics
Kurgan, Russia
ix
