Straight and helical plating with locking plates for proximal humeral shaft fractures - a biomechanical comparison under physiological load conditions.

Objectives: Helical plating is an established method for treating proximal humeral shaft fractures, mitigating the risk of iatrogenic radial nerve damage. However, biomechanical test data on helical plates under physiological load condition is limited. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare the biomechanical performance of helical and straight PHILOS Long plates in AO12C2 fractures using static and cyclic implant system testing.

Biomechanical testing of osteosynthetic locking plates for proximal humeral shaft fractures - a systematic literature review.

Proximal humeral shaft fractures can be treated with helically deformed bone plates to reduce the risk of iatrogenic nerve lesion. Controversially to this common surgical technique that was first established in 1999, no biomechanical investigation on humeral helical plating is recorded by other reviews, which focus on proximal fractures exclusively. Does an additional scope for shaft fractures reveal findings of helical testing? The present systematic literature review was performed based on guidelines by Kitchenham et al.