Recently, a major role of an excessively stimulated complement system in the posttraumatic inflammatory response was postulated (16, 76, 77) . Prospective studies with polytraumatized patients showed a consumption and massive activation of complement products, positively correlating with the mortality rate (78) (79) (80) . Fracture healing is delayed in particular when additional severe injuries stress the organism (81) . The massive trauma-induced inflammation correlates with consequent organ dysfunction (79) and may possibly be involved in the delayed fracture healing.