Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Nov 18, 2025; 16(11): 110465
Published online Nov 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i11.110465
Published online Nov 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i11.110465
Impact of the Ilizarov apparatus on external fixation: Current modifications of the 75-year-old orthopedic tool
Ilia Sutyagin, The First Department of Orthopaedic, Ilizarov National Medical Research Center for Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Kurgan 640014, Russia
Tatiana A Malkova, Department of Medical Information and Analysis, Ilizarov National Medical Research Center for Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Kurgan 640014, Russia
Author contributions: Sutyagin I was responsible for literature selection, writing and revising the text, preparation of cases; Malkova TA was responsible for study design, literature search and selection, writing and revising the text, preparation of figures and tables; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tatiana A Malkova, Department of Medical Information and Analysis, Ilizarov National Medical Research Center for Traumatology and Orthopaedics, 6 M Ulianova Street, Kurgan 640014, Russia. tmalkova@mail.ru
Received: June 9, 2025
Revised: June 25, 2025
Accepted: September 19, 2025
Published online: November 18, 2025
Processing time: 160 Days and 22.4 Hours
Revised: June 25, 2025
Accepted: September 19, 2025
Published online: November 18, 2025
Processing time: 160 Days and 22.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The Ilizarov apparatus was designed 75 years ago and addresses a wide range of orthopedic conditions. Its classical assemblies are still self-sufficient. However, certain clinical scenarios require a more specialized approach, and some groups of patients benefit from customized or modified Ilizarov constructs. They are half-pin hexapod or hybrid fixators for gradual deformity correction, and compression-distraction fixators for definite limb segments. Special devices were developed for moving the split fragment for tibial revascularization. The external frames for the foot and hand were modified to consider their complex anatomy and implement lengthening, correction of multi-plane deformities, and web-space soft-tissue growing.