In 2%-7% of all bone fractures, union is delayed or fails. Nonunions of the bones represent a challenge for orthopedic surgeons and can have a severe psychological impact on these patients. Moreover, the social cost of managing these lesions, often requiring multiple procedures, may be very high, and complications related to improper treatment are not rare. This text is based on the development over many years of the devices and operative techniques of monofocal, bifocal, and multifocal compression-distraction osteosynthesis, in cooperation with the CITO Institute of Moscow and the LNIITO Institute of Riga, and on hundreds of operative procedures on noninfected and infected nonunions personally performed by the authors both in the former Soviet Union, Russia and Italy. The primary purpose of this book is to discuss currently available tools for diagnosing long bone nonunions, to illustrate the means of prevention, and to specify the indications for management using compression-distraction techniques.

Inhalt
Fracture Healing.- Diaphyseal Fracture Repair.- Assessment of Fracture Healing.- Nonunions: General Features.- Failure of Union.- Nonunions: Diagnosis.- Diagnosis.- Diagnosis of Infection.- Nonunions: Treatment.- Prevention.- Nonunions: Treatment Objectives and Options.- Compression-Distraction Systems.- Compression-Distraction Methods.- Treatment of Noninfected Nonunions: Techniques Other Than Compression-Distraction Methods.- Treatment of Infected Nonunions: Techniques Other Than Compression-Distraction Methods.- Treatment of Noninfected Nonunions: Hypertrophic Nonunions.- Treatment of Noninfected Nonunions: Normotrophic Nonunions.- Treatment of Noninfected Nonunions: Atrophic Nonunions.- Treatment of Noninfected Nonunions: Parafocal Osteotomy.- Treatment of Infected Nonunions.- Amputations and Prosthetic Fitting.- Antibiotic Therapy.- Rehabilitation.- Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism.- Future Directions.- Future Perspectives: Computer-Assisted Surgery.- Method of Unified Designation of External Fixation.