Numerical Simulation of an Intramedullary Elastic Nail: Expansion Phase and Load-Bearing Behavior

Giulia Pascoletti, Filippo Cianetti, Elisabetta M. Zanetti

Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Giovanni Putame, Mara Terzini

PolitoBIOMed Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

The Marchetti-Vicenzi's nail is an intramedullary device where six curved nails are kept straight by a closing ring in order to allow their insertion into the medullary canal of a long bone; in a following step, these nails stabilize the fracture due to the ring withdrawal and to the conseguent elastic expansion of the nails. Pre-clinical testing of this sort of device is strongly advocated in order to be able to foresee their stability inside the medullary canal and to quantify their stiffening action on a broken bone. Click here to read full article.