Comparison between plate locking straight and dedicated plate (PDI) for iliac fractures in dogs in finite element simulation

Abstract

Pelvic fractures are recurrent in small animals, especially those that reach the iliac body, resulting from high-energy trauma. Thus, a wide variety of techniques and options for plaques are described to treat these fractures, but none of them developed specifically for this clinical scenario. In order to fill this gap, the plaque dedicated to ileum (PDI) was developed. The objective of the present study is, then, to compare, using finite elements, the behavior under load between the fixation with a blocked straight plate - the most used model currently in the treatment of fractures of the iliac body - and the plate dedicated to the ilium. Using the tomography of a medium-sized mixed breed dog, digital three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the pelvis was performed in the Rhinoceros 6.0 program and imported into the SimLab 2018 software to produce a finite element working model with three-dimensional tetrahedral elements. The real dimension of a straight blocked plate (3.5 mm) with six holes was used to construct an implant. The model dedicated to ilium (PDI) has nine holes in the cranial portion and three flow rates, consistent with a 3.5 mm system plate. Both plate models were designed using a CAD program and applied to the pelvis by the Rhinoceros program. Material properties was applied by SimLab. Loads of 300N will be applied to the contact area of the hip joint in order to simulate the actual behavior of the joint. The model solution will be made using the OptiStruct 2017 program. The results will be obtained through the HyperView 2017 program, where the findings will be seen in a color scale, in which each shade will correspond to the accumulation of tension in the structures.