Abstract
Over-tightening of cortical bone screws in osteoporotic bone results in weak fixation.
Once a screw is over-tightened and the bone thread form is stripped, there are limited
means at the surgeon’s disposal to rescue the situation, none of them entirely satisfactory.
We describe a simple device that is specifically designed to resolve this problem.
It consists of a nylon cavity plug and applicator. The plug is inserted into the stripped
hole and the screw re-applied and tightened in the normal manner. The plug expands
and forms a load-bearing region on the inner face of the bone. Tests on osteoporotic
cadavaric bone have shown that the plug effectively re-establishes screw fixation.
When compared to an over-tightened screw, the plug is at least twice as resistant
to loads acting to pull the screw out of the surrounding bone.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 12,
2002
Received in revised form:
December 20,
2001
Received:
September 3,
2001
Identification
Copyright
© 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
