Mechanical Comparison of a Distal Femoral Side Plate and a Retrograde Intramedullary Nail

Abstract

The mechanical advantages favor the use of the side plate if fixation stiffness is essential. The axial mode of failure occurs distally for both fixation devices.

Distal femoral fractures in the elderly: biomechanical analysis of a polyaxial angle-stable locking plate versus a retrograde intramedullary nail in a human cadaveric bone model

“…Plates exhibited greater plastic deformation than nails (0.29 vs. 0.76 mm at 2,500 N). These findings are in consistent with a multitude of other biomechanical studies investigating osteosynthesis stiffness and osteosynthesis movement in various fracture models [10,23,41,44]. Using an osteoporotic saw-bone model Wähnert et al [41] investigated four different implants (T2 intramedullary nail, supracondylar nail, distal femoral nail, AxSOS angular plate) under torsional and axial loading conditions.…”

Internal Fixation of Type-C Distal Femoral Fractures in Osteoporotic Bone

“…There is agreement, throughout a range of studies of distal femoral fracture management [9][10][11][27][28][29] , that plating provides greater torsional stiffness, whereas intramedullary devices have greater axial strength. In our study, all intramedullary devices showed similar axial stiffness compared with each other.…”

Combination of anatomical locking plate and retrograde intramedullary nail in distal femoral fractures: comparison of mechanical stability

“…[11,[26][27][28][29] Regarding axial stiffness of plate constructs, the literature shows a range from 10% to 25% of axial stiffness achieved with IM nails. [30] Sufficient implant anchorage is a challenge particularly in the treatment of osteoporotic distal femoral fractures.…”