Type of screw does not influence holding power in the femoral head - A cadaver study with shearing test

We studied the holding power during cut-out tests of 4 different screw fixa tion devices of the femoral head, correlated to head size and bone density, on 48 paired deep frozen proximal femurs of fresh gross specimens. We foun d no significant effect of the device on the holding power. There was a sig nificantly higher maximal load at failure in large and dense heads. It seem s then unnecessary to advocate more sophisticated but also more expensive d evices to fix femoral neck fractures.