Fatigue performance of angle-stable tibial nail interlocking screws

International Orthopaedics - Tập 37 - Trang 113-118 - 2012
Mark Lenz1, Boyko Gueorguiev2, Robert Geoff Richards2, Thomas Mückley3, Gunther Olaf Hofmann3, Dankward Höntzsch4, Markus Windolf2
1AO Research Institute Davos, Davos-Platz, Switzerland
2AO Research Institute Davos, Davos Platz, Switzerland
3Department of Traumatology, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
4Department of Medical Technology Development, BG Trauma Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Tóm tắt

Tibial nail interlocking screw failure often occurs during delayed fracture consolidation or at early weight bearing of nailed unstable fractures, in general when high implant stress could not be reduced by other means. Is there a biomechanical improvement in long-term performance of angle stable locking screws compared to conventional locking screws for distal locking of intramedullary tibial nails? Surrogate bones of human tibiae were cut in the distal third and distal locking of the 10 mm intramedullary tibial nail was performed with either two angle stable locking screws or two conventional locking screws in the mediolateral plane. Six specimens per group were mechanically tested under quasi-static and cyclic axial loading with constantly increasing force. Angle stable locking screw constructs exhibited significantly higher stiffness values (7,809 N/mm ± 647, mean ± SD) than conventional locking screw constructs (6,614 N/mm ± 859, p = 0.025). Angle stable locking screw constructs provided a longer fatigue life, expressed in a significantly higher number of cycles to failure (187,200 ± 18,100) compared to conventional locking screw constructs (128,700 ± 7,000, p = 0.004). Fatigue performance of locking screws can be ameliorated by the use of angle stable locking screws, being especially important if the nail acts as load carrier and an improved stability during fracture healing is needed.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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