During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the siege of Sarajevo, health institutions had a huge burden. New patients arrived every day, most often with limb injuries from bullets or shrapnel.
The external fixator is the method of choice in the treatment of war fractures of the long bones of the extremities. About 70 percent of all injuries were limb injuries in wartime conditions, and the small supply of external fixators that was in Sarajevo General Hospital was used up immediately at the beginning of the war. The question arose as to how to further treat seriously injured citizens and members of the BiH Army.
Doctors specializing in orthopedic surgery and traumatology Prim. Ph.D. Sukrija Djozic and Prim. Ph.D. Raib Salihefendiccame up with the idea of making their own modification of external fixators and together with graduate mechanical engineer Enes Baralic, the director of a plant in Energoinvest, made a fixer that was named the Sarajevo war fixer (Sarafix). The first invention was already produced at the beginning of June 1992.
Prim. Ph.D. Sukrija Djozic, head of the Surgery Department at Sarajevo General Hospital, revealed why the Sarajevo fixator was so important and significant.
“A very simple fixator was made that consisted of only 4 elements, and by combining them, it could be placed on all segments of the locomotor apparatus. It gave sufficient stability to the fracture, and at the same time allowed free access to the war wound for dressing it and additional interventions on neurovascular elements, such as and muscle-skin part. The patient could immediately be mobilized and walk with the help of crutches,” explained Djozic.
During the war, over 4,000 fasteners were made in the siegedSarajevo in the company Etas-Valves (Energoinvest). The exact number is unknown because many fixators are recycled, re-sterilized and placed on other injured people after treatment. Thus, thanks to the fixator, which was created in the impossible conditions of war, the lives of thousands of citizens were saved not only in Sarajevo, but also in other cities.
Some fixators went through the “Tunnel of salvation” to Mostar, Gorazde, Zenica, and based on the Sarajevo fixator, many doctors made analogs in order to have a better and easier way to treat patients.
For the invention of Sarafix, the authors received gold medals at innovation fairs in Brussels and Geneva in 1995 and 1996. The city of Sarajevo “paid back” to the scientists who created the sarafix thanks to which they saved thousands of lives by awarding them the 6th of April Award of the City of Sarajevo in 2001.
Prim. Ph.D. Sukrija Djozic donated one copy of Sarafix to the historical museum of the city of Sarajevo together with all the awards and medals he received, where they are still kept.
One copy of Sarafix was installed in the Hunterian Museum in London, which was installed by a friend of the Sarajevo doctors, orthopedist prof. Ph.D. John Beavis, Klix.ba reports.
