Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Surgery

Abstract

S. Robert Rozbruch and Svetlana Ilizarov, editors. New York: Informa Healthcare; 2007. 695 pages. $299.95. ISBN: 978-0-8493-4051-2. Based on the principles of distraction osteogenesis originally elucidated by Gavriil A. Ilizarov, Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Surgery successfully covers the entire current spectrum of Ilizarov-based surgery. It was not long ago that Ilizarov, who is now universally known as the father of deformity correction, was working in Siberia and was unknown in the West. Fortunately, a group of Italians “discovered” the Ilizarov circular fixator in the early 1980s and brought a completely new branch of orthopaedic medicine to the rest of the world. Thereafter, awareness of Ilizarov and his contributions quickly increased, especially after the 1992 English-language publication of his major work, Transosseous Osteosynthesis, which detailed the principles he had spent nearly his entire professional life developing and applying clinically. As “Ilizarov fever” began to hit the United States in the mid-1980s, a number of American orthopaedic surgeons became dedicated Ilizarovians, including John Herzenberg and Dror Paley. Both were instrumental in solving and outlining the geometric basis of deformity correction, which later became the foundation of the center of rotation of angulation (CORA) method. …