An investigation of the fracture characteristics of the tibia of mature rabbits.
The therapeutic implications of the physical aspects of fractures have not yet been clearly defined. We have studied the fracture characteristics of the tibia of mature male rabbits by producing fractures manually and mechanically. The fractures were studied by radiology, by recording fracture strains graphically and by direct measurement of the magnitude of the fracture force. The fracture behaviour of the mature rabbit tibia was found to be similar to that of adult human bone in that they were brittle and fractured in the tension mode without plastic deformation. Angulatory forces were observed to produce transverse and oblique fractures and spiral forces produced spiral fractures in all cases. The maximum bending moment before fracture was 4000 Nmm, the maximum shear moment was 1870 Nmm and the mean of the maximum tensile stress in each case was 20 N/mm2. It was concluded from this that fractures produced by angulatory forces caused the greater damage to the surrounding soft tissues compared with spiral fractures.
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University Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Glenfield General Hospital, Leicester.
Gregg
P J
PJ
Morrison
C
C
Ponter
A R
AR
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D011817:Rabbits; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013977:Tibia / Q000503:physiopathology; D013978:Tibial Fractures / Q000503:physiopathology*