The Effect of Fixation Technique on the Stiffness of Comminuted Vancouver B1 Periprosthetic Femur Fractures

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stiffness of 3 different constructs for the fixation of comminuted Vancouver B1 periprosthetic femoral shaft fractures: a single lateral locking plate, a single lateral locking plate plus an anterior strut allograft, and a lateral locking plate plus an anterior locking plate. The axial stiffness, lateral bending stiffness, and torsional stiffness of 10 synthetic periprosthetic femur fracture models were tested. Differences in stiffness between constructs were determined with a 1-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Fixation technique was found to have a significant effect for all loading modalities (P < .0001). A lateral locked plate plus an anterior locked plate was significantly stiffer than the allograft that in turn was significantly stiffer than the single plate (P < .0001).