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Analysis Of A Clinically Failed, Mechanically Intact, Reconstructive Compression Plate, Bharadwaj Cheruvu, Sunil Karmacharya, Richard T. Laughlin, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

A reconstructive orthopedic bone plate was submitted for analysis. Traditional failure analysis methods were used to assess the mode of the plate failure. Metallographic investigation of the plate was carried out in this report. Since limited data was available in the literature and clinical data related to subject demography, date of removal as well as reasons for removal unknown, in depth analysis was not possible. However, the plate was received in in-tact condition with minor biological deposits and scratches, it is speculated that the failure of the plate may have been due to biological/clinical reasons, likely infection, rejecting the device …