ABSTRACT
While monolateral fixation has been available for most of the past century, its applications have been limited to acute fixation of fractures and osteotomies, as well as to limb lengthening. With the introduction of the Ilizarov fixation device in the mid-1980s outside the Soviet Union, external fixation took a giant leap into three-plane deformity correction. However, compared to monolateral fixation, the Ilizarov ring fixator was more cumbersome and less friendly to patient and physician. Since the 1980s, monolateral fixators have been redesigned to handle single plane angulation and translation. In the past two years, a Multiaxial Correcting (MAC) Monolateral External Fixation system (MAC system)(EBI1, Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S.) has been developed for the correction of linear, angular, translational, and rotational deformities of the limbs.
