ANALYSIS OF AN INTERNAL FIXATION OF A LONG BONE FRACTURE

A major concern when a fractured bone is fastened by stiff-plates to the bone on its tensile surface is excessive stress shielding of the bone. The compressive stress shielding at the fracture-interface immediately after fracture-fixation delays bone healing. Likewise, the tensile stress shielding of the healed bone underneath the plate also does not enable it to recover its tensile strength. Initially, the effect of a uniaxial load and a bending moment on the assembly of bone and plate is investigated analytically. The calculations showed that the screws near the fracture site transfers more load than the screws away from the fracture site in axial loading and it is found that less force is required when the screw is placed near to fracture site than the screw placed away from the fracture site to make the bone and plate bend with same radius of curvature when subjected to bending moment. Finally, the viability of using a stiffness graded bone-plate as a fixator is studied using finite element analysis (FEA): the stiffness-graded plate cause less stress-shielding than stainless steel plate.