Comminuted olecranon fracture fixation with pre-contoured plate: Comparison of composite and cadaver bones

Table 1 Screw types used

Plate hole number	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8
Screw types used in composite bones
L/NL/-	L	L	L	-	L	NL	L	NL
Screw types used in cadaveric bones
L/NL/-	L	L	L	-	L	NL	L	NL

L: Locking; NL: Non-locking; -: None.

Table 2 Load to failure criterion of 2 mm gapping, displacement, stiffness and bone density per specimen

	Composite bones					Human cadaver bones
	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
Load to failure criteria (nm)	11.91	9.40	10.97	10.67	9.64	15.10	12.59	13.05	13.02	15.38
Displacement (mm)	1.76	2.00	1.85	2.00	1.70	2.00	2.00	1.71	2.00	2.00
Stiffness (nm/mm)	6.80	4.69	5.95	5.33	5.69	7.55	6.31	7.62	6.52	7.72
Bone density (g/cm2)	-	-	-	-	-	0.723	0.456	0.658	0.665	0.883
Failure mode	Distal fracture	Fracture gap	Distal fracture	Fracture gap	Distal fracture	Fracture gap	Fracture gap	Triceps failure	Fracture gap	Fracture gap

Table 3 Comparison of the results from this study (composite synthetic fourth generation bones and cadaveric bones) with previous literature studies

	Load to failure	Stiffness
Gordon	30-34.5 nm	7-13 nm/mm
Buijze	4.5-27 nm	8.8-13.3 nm/mm
This study (cadaveric)	12.59-15.38 nm	7.55 nm/mm
This study (composite)	9.40-11.91 nm	5.69 nm/mm