BACKGROUND To compare the effect of modified external fixation and calcaneal traction in a staged management of Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures. MATERIAL AND METHODS The data of 62 patients with Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures who were treated in Liuzhou People's hospital from January 2017 to December 2018 were extracted in this retrospective analysis. There were 32 patients in the temporary external fixation (TEF) group and 30 patients in calcaneal traction (CT) group. Outcomes, including the duration of the surgical procedure, pin track infection, degree of limb swelling, time to second-stage operation, postoperative comfort score, and visual analog scale (VAS) score, were compared. RESULTS The effective rate of swelling reduction after treatment was 85% in the TEF group and 60% in the CT group; the average time to the second-stage operation was 8.34±1.29 days in the TEF group and 10.60±2.27 days in the CT group; the postoperative comfort scores were 70.1±3.2 and 61.3±3.5 in the TEF group and CT group, respectively; the postoperative VAS scores at 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days were 7.90±1.06, 4.88±0.83, 2.72±1.14 in TEF group, and 8.50±0.86, 6.27±1.36, 3.57±1.19 in CT group, respectively. There were 1 case of pin tract infection identified in the TEF group and 4 in the CT group. All differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The modified external fixation is more effective than calcaneal traction in treatment of Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures in the first-stage of combined management.