Treatment of tibial fractures due to gunshot injury with external fixator

One-hundred nineteen patients with tibial fractures due to gunshot injury were treated with Ilizarov and Girgin external fixators. There were 19 type-I, 52 type-II, 48 type-III open fractures. The mean follow-up time was 15.7 (8.5-44) months. Fractures treated with Ilizarov and Girgin external fixators healed on an average of 5.2 (2.5-28) and 5.96 (3.5-14), respectively. Most of the complications occurred at the fractures treated with Girgin external fixator. There were eleven malunion (9.2%), seven non union (5.8%), eight infection (6.72%), forty-one pin-track infection, fourteen delayed union (17.76%). In cases with open tibial fractures due to gunshot injury, external fixator are advantages in view of infection, when compared with other stabilizer materials, particularly with intramedullary nailing. However, it is also disadvantages fixation material for complication such as pin-track infection and malunion.