Fracture Healing Assessment with External Fixation

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Abstract
The increased use of external fracture fixation has brought a need for improved methods of assessing bone healing while the fixator is still in place. In this paper, a method using a strain gauge transducer clamped to the support column of the Oxford External Fixator is considered. Experimental strain gauge data are found to agree very closely with the theoretical analysis for a range of fracture stiffnesses, and to provide a useful measure of progressive bone healing. Bone pin loosening during the course of fracture healing is shown to have a significant effect on the assessment, typically decreasing the strain gauge data by 20 per cent for one loose pin and by 55 per cent for two loose pins. The effects are such that pin loosening could erroneously be interpreted as increased fracture stiffness. Methods are given for correcting the strain gauge data to account for loose pins.

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