Forty-five patients with an unstable fracture of the pelvic ring, for
whom the conventional treatment would have been bed rest with skeletal
traction or with a pelvic sling, were treated with the Hoffmann
external-fixation apparatus. In eighteen fractures of the lateral
compression type and fourteen fractures of the anteroposterior compression
type, the treatment was successful. Proximal migration of the hemipelvis
occurred in four of the eleven patients with a fracture of the unilateral
shear type. There were two deaths from associated injuries.