Injury
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Lateral locked plating is a standard treatment option for distal femur fractures. However, the unstable conditions after lateral locked plating are increasing. The objective of this study was to investigate the biomechanical strength of additional medial plate fixation over the unstable lateral locked plating of distal femur fractures. ⋯ Additional fixation of medial plate significantly increased the fracture stability in distal femur fractures fixed with the lateral locked plating. Especially in the clinical situations where sufficient stability cannot be provided at the distal segment, the medial plate may be considered as a useful biomechanical solution to obtain adequate stability for fracture healing.
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The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the cable-plate-cable technique which comprises fixation of the proximal fragment using cable loops without additional proximal screws on the plate for the treatment of stable-stem periprosthetic femoral fractures around hip prostheses. ⋯ The cable-plate-cable technique sufficiently treats Vancouver types B1 and C periprosthetic femoral fractures without use of additional screws in the proximal fragment.
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A novel Ti6Al4V adjustable locking plate (ALP) is designed to provide enhanced bone stability for segmental bone fractures and to allow precise positioning of disconnected segments. The design incorporates an adjustable rack and pinion mechanism to perform compression, distraction and segment transfer during plate fixation surgery. The aim of this study is to introduce the advantages of the added feature and computationally characterize the biomechanical performance of the proposed design. ⋯ An additional mechanical failure finite element test is also conducted on the rack and pinion to reveal how much torque can be safely applied to the mechanism by the surgeon. Simulation results predict that the new design is sufficiently strong to not fail under regular anatomical loading scenarios with close bending strength and fatigue life properties to clinically used locking compression plates. The novel ALP design is expected to be a good candidate for addressing problems regarding fixation of multi-fragmentary bone fractures.