A biomechanical comparison of parallel plating and vertical plating for humeral intercondylar comminuted fractures / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare biomechanical performances of parallel plate fixation and vertical plate fixation for better clinical treatment of humeral intercondylar comminuted fractures (HICF).Methods Models of T-shaped fracture were created using an osteotome at the distal end of humerus in 6 specimens of upper limb in 3 human adult cadavers.The 2 fracture models of left and right humeri in the same cadaver were respectively fixated with parallel plating and vertical plating.On a biomaterial-testing machine,a vertical load was applied onto the fixated distal humerus at a speed of 5 N/s till it reached 2000 N.The loading was repeated 3 times.Vertical compression displacement,intercondylar separating displacement,deformation of medial and lateral condyles and vertical compression stiffness were documented for statistic analyses. Results Under the same load,parallel plating led to significantly less compression displacement,separating displacement and deformation of condyles( P ＜ 0.05) but significantly greater axial compression stiffness( P ＜ 0.05) than vertical plating. Conclusion In biomechanics,parallel plate fixation has better performance than vertical plate fixation for HICF.