BackgroundHigh tibial osteotomy (HTO) with a medial opening wedge has been used to treat medial compartment osteoarthritis. However, this makes the proximal tibia a highly unstable structure and causes plate and screws to be the potentials sources for mechanical failure. Consequently, proper design and use of the fixation device are essential to the HTO especially for overweight or full weight-bearing patients.MethodsBased on the CT-based images, a tibial finite-element model with medial opening was simulated and instrumented with one-leg and two-leg plate systems. The construct was subjected to physiological and surgical loads. Construct stresses and wedge micromotions were chosen as the comparison indices.ResultsThe use of locking screws can stabilize the construct and decrease the implant and bone stresses. Comparatively, the two-leg design provides a wider load-sharing base to form a force-couple mechanism that effectively reduces construct stresses and wedge micromotions. However, the incision size, muscular stripping, and structural rigidity are the major concerns of using the two-leg systems. The one-leg plates behave as the fulcrum of the leverage system and make the wedge tip the zone of tension and thus have been reported to negatively affect the callus formation.ConclusionsThe choice of the HTO plates involved the trade-off between surgical convenience, construct stability, and stress-shielding effect. If the stability of the medial opening is the major concern, the two-leg system is suggested for the patients with heavy load demands and greater proximal tibial size. The one-leg system with locking screws can be used for the majority of the patients without heavy bodyweight and poor bone quality.
Medial open high tibial osteotomy (HTO) has been used to treat osteoarthritis of the medial compartment of the knee. However, weaker plate strength, unstable plate/screw junction and improper surgery technique are highly related to the HTO outcomes. Two π-shape plates were designed and eight variations (two supporting area × four locking stiffness) were compared by finite-element method. The computed tomography-based tibia was reconstructed and both wedge micromotion and implant stresses were chosen as the comparison indices. The construct was subjected to surgical and physiological loads. The medial-posterior region is the most loaded region and the load through the posterior leg is about four times that through the anterior leg. This indicates that the two-leg design can form a force-couple mechanism to effectively reduce the implant stresses. The use of locking screws significantly decrease the screw and hole stresses. However, the extending plate reduces the stresses of screws and holes above the wedge but makes the distal screws and holes much stressed. Wedge micromotion is affected by extending plate rather than locking screw. Three factors contribute to effective stabilisation of unstable HTO wedge: (1) intimate tibia-plate contact at medial-posterior regions, (2) sufficient rigidity at plate-screw junctions and (3) effective moment-balancing design at distal tibia-plate interfaces.
BackgroundHigh tibial osteotomy (HTO) with a medially opening wedge has been used to treat osteoarthritic knees. However, the osteotomized tibia becomes a highly unstable structure and necessitates the use of plate and screws to stabilize the medial opening and enhance bone healing. A T-shaped plate (e.g. TomoFix) with locking screws has been extensively used as a stabilizer of the HTO wedge. From the biomechanical viewpoint, however, the different plate sites and support bases of the HTO plate should affect the load-transferring path and wedge-stabilizing ability of the HTO construct. This study uses biomechanical tests and finite-element analyses to evaluate the placement- and base-induced effects of the HTO plates on construct performance.MethodsTest-grade synthetic tibiae are chosen as the standard specimens of the static tests. A medial wedge is created for each specimen and stabilized by three plate variations: hybrid use of T- and I-shaped plates (TIP), anteriorly placed TomoFix (APT), and medially placed TomoFix (MPT). There are five tests for each variation. The failure loads of the three constructs are measured and used as the load references of the fatigue finite-element analysis. The residual life after two hundred thousand cycles is predicted for all variations.ResultsThe testing results show no occurrence of implant back-out and breakage under all variations. However, the wedge fracture consistently occurs at the opening tip for the APT and MPT and the medially resected plateau for the TIP, respectively. The testing results reveal that both failure load and wedge stiffness of the TIP are the highest, followed by the MPT, while those of the APT are the least (P < 0.05). The fatigue analyses predict comparable values of residual life for the TIP and MPT and the highest value of damage accumulation for the APT. Both experimental and numerical tests show the biomechanical disadvantage of the APT than their counterparts. However, the TIP construct without locking screws shows the highest stress at the plate-screw interfaces.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the significant effect of placement site and support base on the construct behaviors. The TIP provides a wider base for supporting the HTO wedge even without the use of locking screws, thus significantly enhancing construct stiffness and suppressing wedge fracture. Compared to the APT, the MPT shows performance more comparable to that of the TIP. If a single plate and a smaller incision are considered, the MPT is recommended as the better alternative for stabilizing the medial HTO wedge.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.