Functional or conventional plate prebending in 90 degrees angled blade plate osteosynthesis of intertrochanteric osteotomies.

The principle of prebending plates is recommended for intertrochanteric osteotomies to reach satisfactory primary stability. This can be done by conventional or functional prebending. Because of the shape of an overbent plate in conventional prebending, when the tension device is used a sliding of the medial wedge of the proximal fragment medially on the distal osteotomy plane takes place. In functional prebending, the final shape of the plate results in almost no movement of the bone fragments. Therefore the measurable interfragmentary compression of functional prebending is better than in the conventional procedure. The functional prebending also causes no loss of primary installed medialisation and there is no need for an additional procedure for the prebending during the operation.