Der Unfallchirurg
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Nailing technique has changed in recent years in some important aspects which are not limited to the omitted reaming procedure. These changes concern patient positioning, reduction technique, the use of temporary stabilizers such as the 'Pinless', and determination of implant length and diameter. Approach and exposure techniques have been modified to new, less invasive procedures, in order to fulfill technical, functional and aesthetic requirements. ⋯ Mean time to union was 23.9 weeks (range 10-48 weeks, n = 73); in two cases non-union was observed. The overall result was judged with the Karlström-Olerud score, which was applicable in 66 of 75 cases; excellent, n = 2; good, n = 22; satisfactory, n = 24; fair, n = 9; poor, n = 9. In the remaining nine cases no scoring was attempted because of severe injuries around the knee or ankle.
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Various different interlocking intramedullary nail designs are now available for the tibia the designs resulting from a different approaches to achieving stability for fracture fixation. During recent years small-diameter unreamed interlocking nails have been developed. So far there are no data on stiffness of different nail designs that can justify the use of certain nail types. ⋯ Four-point bending was done up to a moment of 66 Nm. For each implant bending and torque stiffness of the nail were calculated and compared with the test results obtained in the cadaver study. A P-value less than 0.05 (least significance difference test, ANOVA) was considered significant.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)