It has long been generally accepted that the results of fractures of the os calcis are bad, and that recovery is slow and incomplete.Conn in 1926 wrote that they are "serious and disabling injuries in which the end-results continue to be incredibly bad", and in 1935 he added that all the 26 old cases he examined had "pronation of the heels, planus of the long disabling pain". Mercer (1944) states that "fractures of the calcaneus are among the most disabling of all injuries", but adds that "as in joint injuries elsewhere, improvement is slow, and it may be three or four years before recovery reaches its maximum".