[Internal and external fixation for open tibial fracture. Case presentation]. / Fijación interna y externa en fractura expuesta de tibia. Presentación de un caso.

INTRODUCTION: Accidents currently rank first among causes of complex lower limb injuries. The most common open long bone fractures are tibial fractures. Estimates indicate that there are 492,000 new fractures every year, with a prevalence of 100,000 cases that do not heal. CLINICAL CASE: Young, female patient who underwent emergency surgery for a Gustilo III A open comminuted fracture of the left proximal tibia. Surgical toilette was performed several times until the soft tissues improved. Then internal fixation of large fragments was performed with a cortical screw and Professor Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras' external fixator was used to heal the fracture. The combined approach consisting of internal and external fixation is discussed within the setting of these difficult fractures.

[Bone transport with external fixator RALCA in chronic osteomyelitis. Case report]. / Transportación ósea con fijador externo RALCA en la osteomielitis crónica. Reporte de un caso.

OBJECTIVE: To present the results obtained in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis of the distal third of the tibia using an external fixator. CLINICAL CASE: Male, young patient with chronic osteomyelitis of the left tibia resulting from a Gustilo IIIB complicated fracture. We performed resection of the osteomyelitis focus. RESULTS: Good clinical and radiologic results were obtained with this technique; a 9 cm effective bone transport was achieved. CONCLUSIONS: Bone transport is a very useful method for the treatment of osteomyelitis that involves bone resection; the RALCA external fixator is technically useful.