Skeletal transfixation in treatment of comminuted fractures of the distal end of the radius in the elderly.

Ninety-five patients (71 females and 24 males), average age, 69 years (35-92 years), with comminuted distal radial fractures were treated with transfixation wires (Kirschner wires) through the bases of metacarpals II-V and an above-elbow plaster cast. Two cases of early infections and four of Sudeck's dystrophy (4.2%) were encountered.

Lower infection rate after interlocking nailing in open fractures of femur and tibia.

Between 1975 and 1987 91 patients with Types I and II open lower extremity fractures (66 tibia and 25 femur) have been treated surgically with interlocking nailing at the I University Clinic of Traumatology, and the Trauma Department of Wilhelminenspital, Vienna. Our infection rate of 1.2% was found to be lower than figures cited in the literature.