Nova placa em semi anel para fixação de fraturas do platô tibial

Abstract

Injuries in patients can be happen if complex lesions like tibial plateau fractures are not properly handled. Most of the time, the treatment is performed by surgical procedures, which need access to the site and stabilize the fractured bone parts. The fixation form of these fractures depends on the state of the injury and the type of fracture, and usually, the fixation of fractures of the tibial plateau is made by conventional tibial plates (called L type) with internal fixing systems and orthopedic screws. However, despite to good results and efficiency in the majority of cases, the conventional L type plate has some drawbacks related to its geometry, dimensions and amount of screws used to bone fixation. Although, the greatest disadvantage of this fixation system is that it is not appropriated to posterolateral fractures fixation. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to design a new fixation titanium plate (Ti-6AI-4V) for fixation of posterolateral fractures type I, II and III, aiming to develop a fastening system that favors the stabilization of the fracture and reduce the surgical time using an adapted geometry to the shape of the tibia, and a minor amount of orthopedic screws. This new fixation system called the “SA_IRRC_01” was designed with small length and stability simulated by finite element model. The reached results with the simulation using the new plate were compared to conventional L type plate and showed similar mechanical behavior with the conventional model L type, however with smaller geometry and with and a small quantity of screws. This new system proposed can be efficiently used to posterolateral fractures of the tibial plateau. Additional investigations need be carried out for future clinical use the new fixation system.