Early weight bearing in the treatment of fractures of the tibia.

The paper describes a simple and effective practical method of dealing with the fractures of the tibia by means of a long-leg walking plaster-of-Paris cast. The results are assessed in a series of 44 patients, 28 of whom were treated by early weight bearing, while the remaining 16 were treated by traditional closed methods. A simple system of grading tibial fractures is described in order to facilitate valid comparisons. The results conclusively show that the early weight bearing regime results in the fractures uniting in half the time of the late weight bearing series. Details of two cases in each grade of the early weight bearing series are given.