Abstract
Purpose
Clavicle hook plates are frequently used in clinical orthopaedics to treat acromioclavicular joint dislocation. However, patients often exhibit acromion osteolysis and per-implant fracture after undergoing hook plate fixation. With the intent of avoiding future complications or fixation failure after clavicle hook plate fixation, we used finite element analysis (FEA) to investigate the biomechanics of clavicle hook plates of different materials and sizes when used in treating acromioclavicular joint dislocation.
Methods
Using finite element analysis, this study constructed a model comprising four parts: clavicle, acromion, clavicle hook plate and screws, and used the model to simulate implanting different types of clavicle hook plates in patients with acromioclavicular joint dislocation. Then, the biomechanics of stainless steel and titanium alloy clavicle hook plates containing either six or eight screw holes were investigated.
Results
The results indicated that using a longer clavicle hook plate decreased the stress value in the clavicle, and mitigated the force that clavicle hook plates exert on the acromion. Using a clavicle hook plate material characterized by a smaller Young’s modulus caused a slight increase in the stress on the clavicle. However, the external force the material imposed on the acromion was less than the force exerted on the clavicle.
Conclusions
The findings of this study can serve as a reference to help orthopaedic surgeons select clavicle hook plates.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Visible Human Project as the source of the image data used to create the finite element analysis model in this study. The first two authors (Cheng-Min Shih and Kui-Chou Huang) contributed equally to this work. The authors Kuo-Chih Su and Cheng-Hung Lee equally corresponded to this article.
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Cheng-Min Shih and Kui-Chou Huang contributed equally to this work.
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Shih, CM., Huang, KC., Pan, CC. et al. Biomechanical analysis of acromioclavicular joint dislocation treated with clavicle hook plates in different lengths. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 39, 2239–2244 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-015-2890-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-015-2890-8