A Novel Screw Drive for Allogenic Headless Position Screws for Use in Osteosynthesis—A Finite-Element Analysis

Abstract

Due to their osteoconductive properties, allogenic bone screws made of human cortical bone have advantages regarding rehabilitation compared to other materials such as stainless steel or titanium. Since conventional screw drives like hexagonal or hexalobular drives are difficult to manufacture in headless allogenic screws, an easy-to-manufacture screw drive is needed. In this paper, we present a simple drive for headless allogenic bone screws that allows the screw to be fully inserted. Since the screw drive is completely internal, no threads are removed. In order to prove the mechanical strength, we performed simulations of the new drive using the Finite-Element method (FEM), validated the simulations with a prototype screw, tested the novel screw drive experimentally and compared the simulations with conventional drives. The validation with the prototype showed that our simulations provided valid results. Furthermore, the simulations of the new screw drive showed good performance in terms of mechanical strength in allogenic screws compared to conventional screw drives. The presented screw drive is simple and easy to manufacture and is therefore suitable for headless allogenic bone screws where conventional drives are difficult to manufacture.