Mechanical Changes of Intramedullary Nails
Yalim ATES, Hakan OMEROGLU, Mehmet YETMEZ, Hasan YILDIRIM
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology Social Security Hospital Diskapi, Ankara, Turkey
Keywords: Solid Intramedullary Nails, In Vivo Mechanical Evaluation
Abstract
In order to find out whether the mechanical changes of intramedullary nails in vivo are in existence and to assess the changes, an animal study using rabbits was carried out. Ten solid Steinmann pins were inserted into rabbit femora following a fracture and were pulled out after healing of the fracture. Besides the 10 Steinmann pins left in vivo, 10 control Steinmann pins were tested double blind utilising a three point bending configuration. There were no statistically significant difference between the tested Steinmann pins that were locally produced. With these results we can accept that biomechanical testing will be sufficient on solid rods before testing on humans.