Cirugía de salvataje en las grandes lesiones infectadas de las extremidades

prospective descriptive research was carried out in 21 patients with infectious lesions of the limbs, treated by salvatage surgery in "frank país" international scientific orthopedic complex from january, 1994 to february,2003 and followed-up at least 6 months after the operation. the most affected were males and the 21-30 y age group. open fracture was the lesion that mostly led to the use of salvatage surgery (12 patients) and the most involved bone was tibia. external fixation was the most used method at the beginning, that is, before salvatage surgery. in 80,9% of the sample, bone transportation with external fixator ralca was used as salvatage treatment. complications barely occurred.