A clinical and comparative biomechanical evaluation of proximal femoral osteotomy fixation in children.

Abstract

This study compared the biomechanical characteristics of a 90 degrees infant blade plate construct and anteriorly applied 120 degrees angled plate construct in response to an axial compression load. The blade plate construct stiffness was three times greater than the angled plate construct (238.9 vs 85.7 N/deg). Four degrees failure load was also significantly higher for the blade plate. Despite inferior biomechanical characteristics, the 120 degrees angled plate functioned very satisfactorily in a retrospective clinical review of 21 proximal femoral varus osteotomies. The authors conclude that the 120 degrees angled plate has practical benefits in terms of ease of insertion and intraoperative adjustability which may outweigh its biomechanical inferiority.