Estimation of Clavicle Plate Bending Angles before Surgery

Fractures of clavicle are very common which accounts up to 4% of all fractures, with a reported annual incident of clavicle fractures varying between 29 - 64 cases per 100,000 persons. Surgical treatments on open Reduction Internal Fixation (ORIF) are the most common way to fix the bone fracture and facilitate rapid postoperative recovery. Although intramedullary nailing can be beneficial on less operative trauma for the patient, but there is a serious risk of pin migration. Plate fixation is more commonly applied in clavicular fracture fixation. To fit the plate with patients’ skeleton, the plates are designed to provide flexibility for surgeons to bend the implant so that it can provide a more accurate and reliable bone fixture. However, the current practice of bending the implant is performed during surgery. It is because there is no precise perceiving profile of the clavicle bone. Surgeons need to modify the implant in the “bend and try” process during surgery. This process has several major problems. First of all, the process is very inefficient and increase the surgical time. According to Burghart et al., the average time required for an experienced surgeon to bend an implant is 20 minutes in order to counter the profile of bone. This not only increases the infection risks during surgery, but also increase the operation cost. Moreover, the “bend and try” process may also weaken the strength of the implant because reverse bending may cause fatigue of the plate.