Treatment of Compound Fractures of Bones of the Leg by Skeletal Traction

cannot be maintained unless adequate traction is continued during after-treatment. In compound' fractures with a more-or-less trivial external wound and a moderate amount of damage to the underlying soft structures, open reduction after a thorough surgical toilet of the wound and immediate plastering gives very good results; but when the patients come under observation after the infection has settled in the tissues, or where there is extensive mutilation of the soft parts, the amount of toilet necessary for immediate plastering becomes impossible. In them it is imperative to keep the wounds open for purposes of free drainage of the infection and management of the wound. Winnett Orr's method can be used successfully in certain types of infected fractures, but there still remains a group of cases where any attempt to practice this method will cause the infection to continue and spread along the tissues, considerably jeopardizing the life and the safety of the limb of the patient. In these cases where immediate plastering is impossible one has to depend