In 2006 nearly 700,000 open heart surgeries were performed, each of which required a surgical bisection of the sternum. After surgery, the sternum must be fixated back together a process that usually uses cerclage wires. In a small subset of patients, these wires are ineffective at providing fixation which leads to malunion and infection of the sternum. Rigid fixation is proposed to be a better solution; however screw-plate systems are not currently optimized for the sternum. Different screw types and depths were assessed by cyclic loading (0 to 50N) in osteoporotic human sternum for 15,000 cycles. Using these results, an optimal rigid fixation system was proposed. A composite screw with novel locking head was designed that was shown to minimize displacement based on a proof of concept.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Ahn, Jonathan Young
• Sandefer, Andrew C.
• Christakis, Alexander G.
• Dieselman, John Conrad

Contributors

• Dunn, Raymond

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-043009-115732

Advisor

• Billiar, Kristen

Year

• 2009

Sponsor

• University of Massachusetts Medical School

Date created

• 2009-04-30

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biomedical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright