Comparison of headless screws used in the treatment of proximal nonunion of scaphoid bone.

Screws with different levels of compression force are available for scaphoid fixation and it is known that the Acutrak screw generates greater compression than the Herbert screw. We retrospectively compared two types of headless compression screw for their effectiveness in the repair of scaphoid nonunion. Twenty-nine cases of proximal scaphoid nonunion were surgically treated with non-vascularised bone graft: the Acutrak screw was used in 17 patients and the cannulated Herbert screw in 12 patients.