Objective: To determine if preoperative examination of patient additive manufactured (AM) fracture models can be used to improve resident operative competency and patient outcomes.
Design: Prospective cohort study. Seventeen matched pairs of fracture fixation surgeries (for a total of 34 surgeries) were performed.
Biomechanical testing of long bones can be susceptible to errors and uncertainty due to malalignment of specimens with respect to the mechanical axis of the test frame. To solve this problem, we designed a novel, customizable alignment and potting fixture for long bone testing. The fixture consists of three-dimensional-printed components modeled from specimen-specific computed tomography (CT) scans to achieve a predetermined specimen alignment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Failure of surgical fixation in orthopaedic fractures occurs at a significantly higher rate in osteoporotic patients due to weakened osteoporotic bone. A therapy to acutely improve the mechanical properties of bone during fracture repair would have profound clinical impact. A previous study has demonstrated an increase in mechanical properties of acellular cortical canine bone after immersion in raloxifene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study compared stiffness between two constructs for talonavicular arthrodesis: a dorsomedial plating system and two partially threaded cannulated cancellous screws. We hypothesized that the plate would exhibit greater stiffness and resistance to deformation during cyclic loading.
Methods: The constructs were implanted in eight matched pairs of cadaveric feet and subjected to axial torsion, cantilever bending in two directions, and cyclic loading to failure.