Effect of rigid plate fixation on structure and mineral content of cortical bone.

The effect of rigid plate fixation on the structure and mineral content of cortical bone were studied by light and fluorescence microscopy and by chemical analysis of calcium and hydroxyproline content in 27 rabbits from one day to 17 weeks after the attachment of a 5 hole ASIF-plate onto intact femur. Between the second and seventeenth postoperative weeks the plated cortical bone became progressively thinner and porotically transformed. Subendosteal resorption was partly offset by the formation of new subperiosteal bone that resulted in a slightly wider than normal, thin-walled tubular bone. At 17 weeks the mean calcium content of the tubular bone under the plate was 15% less than the initial postoperative content (p less than 0.05). The corresponding decrease in calcium content in the metaphyseal and epiphyseal areas of both the operated and the control bone was highly significant. The mean values for hydroxyproline in plated and control bones remained largely unchanged.