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A Preliminary Study of Bending Stiffness Alteration in Shape Changing Nitinol Plates for Fracture Fixation

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Abstract

Nitinol is a promising biomaterial based on its remarkable shape changing capacity, biocompatibility, and resilient mechanical properties. Until now, very limited applications have been tested for the use of Nitinol plates for fracture fixation in orthopaedics. Newly designed fracture-fixation plates are tested by four-point bending to examine a change in equivalent bending stiffness before and after shape transformation. The goal of stiffness alterable bone plates is to optimize the healing process during osteosynthesis in situ that is customized in time of onset, percent change as well as being performed non-invasively for the patient. The equivalent bending stiffness in plates of varying thicknesses changed before and after shape transformation in the range of 24–73% (p values <0.05 for all tests). Tests on a Nitinol plate of 3.0 mm increased in stiffness from 0.81 to 0.98 Nm2 (corresponding standard deviation 0.08 and 0.05) and shared a good correlation to results from numerical calculation. The stiffness of the tested fracture-fixation plates can be altered in a consistent matter that would be predicted by determining the change of the cross-sectional area moment of inertia.

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Acknowledgment

This research project was funded by the Collaborative Research Center 599 for Biomedical Technology, a Center of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The following author, Ronny Pfeifer, made an equal contribution to this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Biomechanics and Biomaterials, Department of Orthopaedics, Hannover Medical School, Anna-von-Borries-Str. 1-7, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    Gavin Olender & Christof Hurschler

  2. Laser Zentrum Hannover, Hollerithallee 8, 30419, Hannover, Germany

    Ronny Pfeifer & Stephan Barcikowski

  3. Trauma Department, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    Christian W. Müller & Thomas Gösling

Authors
  1. Gavin Olender
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  2. Ronny Pfeifer
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  3. Christian W. Müller
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  4. Thomas Gösling
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  5. Stephan Barcikowski
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  6. Christof Hurschler
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Correspondence to Gavin Olender.

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Associate Editor Sean S. Kohles oversaw the review of this article.

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Olender, G., Pfeifer, R., Müller, C.W. et al. A Preliminary Study of Bending Stiffness Alteration in Shape Changing Nitinol Plates for Fracture Fixation. Ann Biomed Eng 39, 1546–1554 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0257-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0257-x

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