Abstract

The extent of interfragmentary compression in intraarticular fractures treated with various fixation methods have not yet been reported. Lateral split fractures were created in six pairs of cadaver tibiae treated using buttress plating with lag screws (group C) or locked buttress plating after clamp compression (group L). Interfragmentary compression and fracture displacement were continuously measured using pressure sensors and a stereoscopic 3-D image correlation system. Significantly larger interfragmentary compression was found initially after clamping the fragment (p < 0.05) in group C (median ± SD ; 45.1 ± 5.0 N/mm2) compared with group L (33.6 ± 3.4 N/mm2), and a statistical trend towards larger compression was also found after cyclic loading (p = 0.05) in group C (45.3 ± 8.6 N/mm2) compared with group L (28.7 ± 5.8 N/mm2). These data indicate that conventional plating with lag screws achieves higher interfragmentary compression in this model compared with external clamp compression and locked plating.