TY - JOUR AU - Tjardes, Thorsten AU - Roland, Michael AU - Otchwemah, Robin AU - Dahmen, Tim AU - Diebels, Stefan AU - Bouillon, Bertil PY - 2014 DA - 2014/12/15 TI - Less than full circumferential fusion of a tibial nonunion is sufficient to achieve mechanically valid fusion - Proof of concept using a finite element modeling approach JO - BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders SP - 434 VL - 15 IS - 1 AB - Although minimally invasive approaches are widely used in many areas of orthopedic surgery nonunion therapy remains a domain of open surgery. Some attempts have been made to introduce minimally invasive procedures into nonunion therapy. However, these proof of concept studies showed fusion rates comparable to open approaches never gaining wider acceptance in the clinical community. We hypothesize that knowledge of mechanically relevant regions of a nonunion might reduce the complexity of percutaneous procedures, especially in complex fracture patterns, and further reduce the amount of cancellous bone that needs to be transplanted. The aim of this investigation is to provide a proof of concept concerning the hypothesis that mechanically stable fusion of a nonunion can be achieved with less than full circumferential fusion. SN - 1471-2474 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-15-434 DO - 10.1186/1471-2474-15-434 ID - Tjardes2014 ER -