Bone Grafts Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bone Grafts, including details on spine fusion, surgery, procedure, risks.

A new device for the fixation of anterior cruciate ligament tendon grafts. Design and experimental study.

Martel O, Carta JA, Garcés G

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Las Palmas University, Engineering Departmental Building, Campus de Tafira Baja, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

In this paper the design and experimental analysis is presented of a new fixation device of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) grafts of the knee. This device is inserted into the bone tunnel, after the graft, in the same way as an interference screw. However, the fixation device described in this paper has been designed in such a way that, after the insertion of a threaded element in its interior, some of its components expand in a radial direction, pressing against the walls of the bone tunnel and thereby increasing the fixation of the graft. This expansion device can be used in both the femur and the tibia. The device proposed in this paper was compared with an interference screw for load failure and fixation stiffness in experiments performed using porcine bones. The failure load was significantly higher in the new expansion device group (633+/-202 N) than in the interference screw group (471+/-179 N). The stiffness obtained when the new device was used (59+/-20 N/mm) was also significantly higher than that obtained using the interference screw (37+/-19 N/mm) (t-test, P<0.05). According to these results, this new device could be considered a good alternative to improve fixation of anterior cruciate ligament grafts.

Published 6 November 2006 in Med Eng Phys, 29(1): 163-8.
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