Fracture angles influence healing in fully reduced distal femur fractures treated with locking plates

There has been considerable research on the healing environment for fractures with inter-fragmentary gaps in which secondary healing (with callus) occurs due to inter-fragmentary strain. Fully reduced fractures treated with locking plates (device commonly selected for distal femur fractures) are considered to be stable permitting primary (osteonal) fracture healing. The possible subtle inter-fragmentary motions, which could inhibit osteonal repair at the early stage of healing in these reduced fractures due to weight bearing are not well understood. This study used finite element models to analyse the normal and shear inter-fragmentary motions between the bone fragments. The effect of fracture angles between bone fragments was compared.