Abstract
External fixation undoubtedly represents a great contribution to treatment of fractures. Its development goes back to middle of 19th century and is connected with the name of Joseph Francois Malgaigne, even though this outstanding doctor was probably not the first one to have used it.
It is difficult to determine exactly the sequence of individual authors according to their merit, because each of them contributed to the development of external fixation in a different way. Nevertheless there are a few names that deserve special attention as Lambotte, Parkhill, Putti, H.
Judet and Klapp with Block, who made significant steps forward in the development. It is obvious that external fixateurs in the time before World War Two were already highly developed devices and in comparison with the present situation in the field we could say that almost everything has been here before, only the precision of manufacturing of components and quality of used materials are on a higher level.