Dr. David Seegmiller
Foot and Ankle Clinic
Salt Lake City, UT

Problem: A 62-year-old diabetic patient suffered from Charcot joint disease in her left
foot for more than a year. During this time the patient also suffered from an ulcer, which resulted in a bone infection. As a result, she resorted to walking on her tibia and talus.

Standard procedure at this time would have been amputation. Instead the patient and physician elected to try other modalities to preserve the foot. Those modalities included accommodative shoes, inserts, braces, accommodative felt and foam, and crutches. None worked and all made the ulceration worse. Traditional external fixators were not an option due to a lack of sufficient healthy bone to secure the skinny wires.

Solution: As a last resort we used the EZ Frame, which allows the foot to be suspended,
thus improving the body’s ability to heal the ulceration. The foot was then treated with antibiotics, the infection cut out, and when the infection cleared 6 to 7 weeks later, the foot was fused with a triple arthrodesis procedure.

Result:    After one year trying every available alternative on the market, the EZ Frame provided the only means to creating an environment where the ulceration and infection could heal. No pin tract infections were noted. The patient was removed from the EZ Frame within 12 weeks.