Transarticular application of external skeletal fixation.

External skeletal fixators provide a useful alternative to external coaptation techniques for immobilization of joints in selected patients. This is especially true when the orthopedic injury involves an open wound requiring daily treatment. Devices such as the K-E splint, the Rudy external fixator boot, and acrylic frame fixators are economical and effective for transarticular fixation in small animal patients. Clinical indications for these techniques have included fixation of tibial or radial fractures with a short distal fragment; arthrodesis of the elbow, carpus, stifle, or tarsus; protection of Achilles tendon repairs; protection of collateral ligament repairs of the tarsocrural joint; and protection when multiple ligaments of the stifle joint have been reconstructed. Use of contoured rods has facilitated transarticular application of type II Kirschner-Ehmer splints. Use of acrylic frames and the Rudy boot technique have extended safe use of transarticular external fixation to extremely small patients not accommodated by the Kirschner system alone. An understanding of the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each of these techniques is critical to proper selection of the best method for a given patient. Attention to the basic principles of pin selection, pin insertion, and frame design are needed for successful execution of the chosen technique.