to the fracture 34 both during surgery and post operatively this allows the bone 34 to heal without covering the surrounding soft tissue not shown of the affected limb allowing treatment of such tissue the frame 12 is preassembled and includes a pair of spaced parallel upper rods 36a b which overlie a pair of spaced parallel lower rods 38a b the rods 36a b and 38a b extend the length of frame 12 and are connected at one end to an end plate 40a and at the other end to an end plate 40b the upper rods 36a b are fixed by welding or other means to opposite upper corners of the end plates 40a b and the lower rods 38a b are similarly attached to opposite bottom corners of the end plates 40a b a pair of spaced intermediate plates 42a b are mounted at their upper and lower corners to the upper rods 36a b and lower rods 38a b respectively the intermediate plate 42a is spaced from the end plate 40a to form the end section 14 of frame 12 and intermediate plate 42b is spaced from the end plate 40b to form the opposite end section 16 the center section 18 of frame 12 extends between intermediate plates 42a b and includes that portion of the upper rods 36a b and lower rods 38a b disposed between the intermediate plates 42a b the frame 12 is subjected to forces in different loading modes including shear bending torsion tension and compression to secure and retain the proximal and distal portions 28 32 of the bone 30 in.