🔍 Key Findings
- Bending tees significantly increased mediolateral bending stiffness, but not craniocaudal stiffness, in plate-bone constructs.
- Mean mediolateral stiffness was 43.2 N/mm with tees vs. 41.1 N/mm without (p = 0.0042), though the absolute difference was small.
- No significant differences were found in craniocaudal bending stiffness between constructs with or without tees (p = 0.89).
- Plastic deformation occurred in all constructs; no screw pull-out or implant breakage was observed.
- SOP nodes may resist compressive but not tensile deformation, suggesting variable mechanical contributions depending on loading direction.
- Craniocaudal bending had greater stiffness than mediolateral due to higher area moment of inertia along the node diameter.
- Clinical relevance of added stiffness from tees remains unclear, warranting further in vivo and cyclic testing.
- This was the first study to directly test SOP constructs with/without tees over a fracture gap in multiple planes.
