Complicated extremity fractures. The relation between external fixation and nonunion.

In a series of 20 tibial fractures and ten radial fractures treated by external fixation, no association was found between the development of non-union and degree of soft tissue injury, delay in fixator application, or diaphyseal versus metaphyseal fracture site. Although the absence of fracture callus on roentgenograms of long bones immobilized by external skeletal fixation portends nonunion, no obvious cause-and-effect relation could be determined.