A DISTRACTOR FOR FRACTURE REDUCTION WITH MINIMAL SUBSIDIARY HANDLING FORCES

The new distracter was conceived as part of the PC-Fix instrumentation with the function of reducing and compressing the fracture before pla ting. Other distraction devices already exist, but the smaller devices (relative to the large and expensive traction table) tend to cause th e bone segments to be rotated off the long axis due to moments created by soft tissue forces. It is thus necessary to hold the position of s uch devices manually against, what can be, very large forces. The new device eliminates such moments by centring the rotation axes on the lo ng axis of the bone. The bone segments are thereby retained in longitu dinal orientation without manual input. Once the bone has been distrac ted and reduced the device is locked so that the position of the bone is maintained during fixation. The current distracter has been designe d for the forearm but it is anticipated that larger models will be con structed for the other long bones.