An extended evaluation of the ASIF compression apparatus in the treatment of forearm fractures was begun in April 1965. One hundred and nineteen compression plates were applied in seventy-eight patients whose average follow-up was twenty-nine months. Plates were applied to both radius and ulna in twenty-eight patients with fractures of both bones; to the radius of thirteen patients whose fracture of the ulna was treated by closed reduction (six patients) or by an intramedullary rod (seven patients); to the radius in twenty-one patients with fractures in the distal one third of the radius (Galeazzi or Piedmont fractures); to the radius only in fourteen patients with other types of fracture of the radius; and to the ulna only in two patients with fractures of the ulna.

All fractures primarily treated by compression plate fixation healed but two required subsequent bone-grafting for non-union. There were ten infections associated with compression plate fixation and loss of fixation occurred four times. Failure of fixation could be attributed to a technical error in four instances.

Significant restriction of motion in the adjacent joint or joints occurred in seventeen patients; however, only seven of them did not return to their usual occupation. If the seven adult patients who had compression plate fixation of the radius and intramedullary fixation of the ulna are excluded, restriction of motion occurred in only ten of seventy-one patients and only five of seventy-one patients did not return to their usual occupation.