title: The chessboard technique - a new freehand aiming method for rapid distal locking of tibial nails.
abstract: Distal locking is considered a difficult stage of the endomedullary tibial nailing procedure. A new rapid, simple, and inexpensive freehand aiming technique is presented that uses a galvanized metal grid. The grid is positioned to overlay the skin of the medial cutaneous face of the tibia, giving to the underlying bone under fluoroscopy a pattern that resembles a chessboard. The squares of the grid permit a rapid and accurate localization of the corresponding distal holes of the endomedullary nail, requiring only a single fluoroscopy image, which can be important relative to radiation exposure.
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department, Mellino Mellini Hospital Trust, Civil Hospital of Iseo (Brescia), Italy. andrea@orthopaedics.com
authors.forename: Andrea Emilio
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Salvi
mesh_terms: D001858:Bone Nails; D004867:Equipment Design; D005594:Fracture Fixation, Intramedullary / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011859:Radiography; D013978:Tibial Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome