Assessing osteosynthesis techniques for pelvic fractures using Digital Image Correlation

摘要

Various techniques used in orthopedic surgery for the fixation of pelvic fractures are assessed experimentally from the biomech-anical point of view. The protocol designed consisted of twenty five experiments with cadaveric semi-pelvises which were artificially fractured. The fractures simulated the extremely dangerous T-type ones. Five fixation techniques, comprising of simple and self-locking plates with fixation screws, were assessed. For the determination of the displacement field developed three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (3D-DIC) was used. It was indicated that 3D-DIC is advantageous against classical sensing techniques since it allows convenient selection of critical pairs of material points (both prior and after the experiments, without any limit as to their number) for the estimation of the opening of the fracture. Moreover it permits determination of the pure relative sliding between the various parts of the T-fractured pelvises as it allows isolation of rigid body displacement and rotation. From the clinical point of view it appears that combination of locking reconstruction plates with simple ones offers increased stability.