Noninvasive vascular monitoring during limb lengthening

Transcutaneous wires and pins in wire-tension Ilizarov external fixators provide frame stability, transfix and transport bone segments, produce distraction, and stimulate transosseous osteogenesis. Vascular compromise by the transfixing pins and wires is nevertheless an ongoing possibility. Based on earlier studies of a two-phase method of measuring vascular blood blow, noninvasive vascular monitoring was performed on three patients undergoing Ilizarov method limb lengthening.