Open reduction and circular external fixation of intraarticular calcaneal fractures

Open reduction and internal fixation techniques do not allow early weight bearing. In an effort to develop a better method to obtain calcaneal fracture reduction and maintain it in the face of early weight bearing, a circular external fixator was applied to seven patients in combination with a limited lateral approach and open reduction and internal fixation of the depressed subtalar joint fragments. The operative technique uses the Ilizarov circular external fixator to obtain a ligamentotaxis reduction, following which the depressed subtalar joint fragments are elevated open; then, the fixator is used to reduce the lateral translation. All displacements of the fracture fragments are corrected