A comparison between cannulated and non-cannulated cancellous screws used in the fixation of a simulated femoral neck fracture – a finite element study

• Main Author: Ho, Phoebe Zi Qing
• Other Authors: Chou Siaw Meng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78773
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Fractures of the femoral neck are injuries commonly sustained by elderly patients due to osteoporosis and unsteadiness of gait. Cannulated screws are widely used for internal fixation as a treatment for femoral neck fractures as it has the advantage of creating more accurate and reproducible fixations. In prior studies, various conditions and configuration of screws have been investigated by correlating characteristics such as loading forces, stiffness and displacement. The aim of this project is to use finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate and study the difference between cannulated and non-cannulated screws used in the fixation of femoral neck fractures. In this study, a fixation using three parallel screws in an inverted triangular configuration was done on a fourth-generation synthetic composite femur with a Pauwel’s type II fracture. In this study, various conditions and settings were investigated and improved based on previous FEA models. The FEA model is continuously enhanced to increase its robustness and improve the results to be as close to the physical experiments as possible. Results from this study suggest that non-cannulated screws have higher load bearing capacity as compared to the cannulated screws.