Treatment of neglected complicated multiple musculoskeletal injuries.

Two hundred eighty-nine patients with multiple bone fractures who had combined impairment of bones and soft tissues were treated from 1960 to 1993 in the authors' institution. All patients were transferred from local hospitals of the Moscow district between several months and 3 years after trauma, and had neglected fractures complicated by dislocations, false joints, and imperfectly united bone fractures. The authors prefer an individual approach to patient treatment and used simultaneous surgical intervention on several bone segments using stable osteosynthesis with AO-POLDI plates and the Ilizarov apparatus. Two-stage operations were done in cases of > or = 3 injured segments. Positive results with restoration of the extremity and its supporting motor systems were obtained in 96% of patients.