The Ilizarov Frame

A few days after I was scheduled to be fitted with an Ilizarov external fixator.

After being told repeatedly by the anaesthesiologist that I was stupid for climbing without a rope he mercifully rendered me unconscious.

Once again I woke up with a confusing array of metal attached to my leg.

If you don't know what an Ilizarov frame looks like, it consists of metal rings that are joined by vertical columns, each of these rings have wires attached that pass through the bones and breaks and operate under tension, effectively pulling everything into position. The upper and lower rings must be seated in good bone and hence allow for any load (your bodyweight) to be passed through the affected leg (or other body part), quite a clever arrangement although they do seem to be a bit unnecessarily cumbersome (Current modernisations do exist: carbon fibre rings etc, but these are very stiff and cause a lot of pain around the pin sites, or so they have been told by people who have been unfortunate enough to sample more than one kind of frame! I hope I’m never in that situation or for that matter anyone else is).