Outcome of ilizarov fixator in complex non-union of long bones

To evaluate the efficacy of Ilizarov fixator in the management of complex non-union of long bones.

The retrospective study was conducted at Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, and Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan, and comprised data of patients aged 14- 60 years of either gender with complex non-union of long bones between January 2006 and December 2013. Data, including age, gender, mechanism of injury, type of long bone involved, complications of surgery and final outcome, was documented on a pre-designed proforma. Outcome was graded using Association for the Study and Application of Methods of Ilizarov scoring system. SPSS 20 was used for analysis.

There were 45 patients of whom 30(66.7%) were males and 15(33.4%) were females. The overall mean age was 32.20±12.48 years (range: 14-60 years).Of the 45 non-unions, 39(86%) healed successfully, and the mean time to union was 30.69±8.6 weeks (range: 16-52weeks).In terms of outcome, 29(64.44%) patients had excellent bone results, 9(20%) had good results, 2(4.44%) had fair results and 5(11.1%) had poor bone results. There were 32(71.11%) patients with excellent functional result, 8(17.77%) good, 2(4.44%) fair and 3(6.66%) patients had poor results.

Ilizarov fixator gave good and excellent results in complex non-union of long bones by eradicating the infection, filling the defect with bone transport, and correcting the deformity and limb length discrepancy.