A specialist trauma service which treats patients with complex limb fractures is growing following increased demand.

The Limb Reconstruction Service at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham specialises in fitting patients with circular external frames to help heal complex fractures which cannot be repaired using traditional surgical techniques.

The Ilizarov apparatus, named after the Russian orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered the technique in the 1950s, is used in surgical procedures to lengthen or reshape limb bones, and also treat complex bone fractures.

The Limb Reconstruction Service, started in 2009 by trauma consultant Deepa Bose, is now expanding after adding a specialist nurse and physiotherapist to the team.

Ms Bose said: “This is a new service that is growing rapidly. It really is taking off as a service.

“Although complex limb trauma was, and still is, being done by individual consultants, there was no specialist limb reconstruction service, so I started to build it.

“I also introduced Ilizarov surgery which very few people do in the country. The nearest centres are in Oxford, Bristol and Sheffield, so we take patients from across the West Midlands area.

“We treat 40 to 50 patients a year using this frame method and the number is growing, with about 20 per cent of those being soldiers coming back from Afghanistan.”

Ms Bose said the frame had several advantages over traditional surgery methods: “It is different from other types of external fixators. Patients are able to put weight on their fractured limb straight away, and can also re-grow the damaged bone within the frame.

“You create a new break away from the fracture and the frame gradually stretches the bone apart and the gap then backfills with bone.

“Another beauty of the frame is that you control it from the outside. For every centimetre of bone they grow, the patient has to be in the frame for two months. But you stop when you need to so the bone doesn’t grow any more or less than you want.

“Previously, this surgery would have been done with internal screws, rods or plates, but that doesn’t give you the opportunity to replace bone or correct deformity.

“It is also good for reducing infection as you are not inserting a metal plate or rod into the body.”

Ms Bose said the service adopted a multi-disciplinary approach by combining with plastic surgeons and working with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and microbiologists.

“We have now got our own specialist nurse and physiotherapist, so the team is now growing. And, because of the demand, we feel certain it will grow more in the future.”