Fig. 3.

Stiffness comparison between locked plating (LP) and far cortical locking (FCL) constructs. a: Far cortical locking constructs exhibited a biphasic stiffness profile. In axial loading, far cortical locking constructs had a low initial stiffness within the near cortex motion envelope that allowed for approximately 0.8 mm of axial motion before reaching the secondary stiffness due to near-cortex support. b: At 200 N of loading, the initial stiffness of far cortical locking constructs induced comparable amounts of interfragmentary motion at the near and the far cortex. This fracture-site motion was one order of magnitude greater than that in locked plating constructs. The cross-sectional view of a far cortical locking construct at the bottom of the figure illustrates elastic deformation of far cortical locking screws and the resulting parallel interfragmentary motion.