Creating Rigidly Stabilized Fractures for Assessing Intramembranous Ossification, Distraction Osteogenesis, or Healing of Critical Sized Defects

This article describes a method for stabilizing long bone fractures that is based on the application of modified Ilizarov external fixators ^1-3. After application of the fixators and creation of the bone injury, healing can be assessed, distraction osteogenesis can be performed, or non-union or critical sized defect can be created and used to study therapeutic interventions.