Soft Tissue Defect Closure with a New Modified Assembly; Experience in 10 Cases

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this descriptive study was to introduce a new assembly for soft tissue defect and deep wound closure using Ilizarov Method. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was con-ducted in Combined Military Hospital Peshawarfor a period of 4 months from September 2011 December 2011. Patients and Methods: Ten patients with soft tissue defects were studied. A new modified assembly from Ilizarov set was applied. We included all the patients withdeep soft tissue defect.The assembly was made from Ilizarov set, independent of bony anchorage. Results: All of our patients were male with mean age of 32.23 years. Aetiology was gunshot wounds in 4, splinter injuries in 3 and road traffic accidents in 3 patients. Tibia was affected in 4. Femur in 2, foot in two and fibula and hand in other cases. All wounds were debrided, single or multiple times and assembly was applied. The mean interval between injury and application of assembly was 8.8 days, max 27 and min 1.We achieved satisfactory wound closure in 100% cases. The mean time for wound closure was 14.9 days, min 10 max 27. We had one major and 3 minor complication. Conclusion: We described a new orthopaedic techni-que to close open wounds and cover soft tissue defect. This is simple, user friendly and reliable. This will decrease the need for flap coverage of wounds. To our knowledge this is first presentation of an assembly from Ilizarov set independent of bony anchorage to treat deep wounds and defects. Keywords: Soft tissue defect, Open fracture, Ilizarov method.