An experimental study of the patterns of periosteal and endosteal damage in tibial shaft fractures using a rabbit trauma model.

After fractures were manually produced in rabbit tibia, soft-tissue damage was assessed both visually and by vascular radiography. Transverse fractures produced circumferential laceration of the periosteum and complete transection of the marrow. Sprial fractures produced longitudinal periosteal laceration and incomplete marrow damage. These results indicate that soft-tissue damage in transverse fractures may be qualitatively different from that in spiral fractures. Perfusion studies revealed that although the nutrient artery may be interrupted by fracture, its main trunks on either side of, and up to, the fracture line may still be filled via available collateral channels.