For stabilizing and fixing bone fractures it is known to employ bone plates which are fixed on the bone by means of suitable fastening elements such as, for example, bone screws, along with pins, bolts or other bone anchors. To guarantee a secure fixation of the bone fragments to each other and of the bone plate on the bone, it is required that the bone anchors are incorporated into the bone precisely and so as to be adapted to the anatomy.
However, a bone plate attached to a bone is subject to mechanical loads, in particular a bending load. This load acts particularly on the weakest regions of a bone plate, namely those regions where through holes are provided. In particular, an elongate bone-plate shaft portion that is provided with through holes along its length has an irregular moment-of-resistance curve along its length and, upon excessive load, will be most likely to break in the region of a through hole, or at least be deformed in the region of a through hole, which would impede the introduction of a bone anchor through the through hole. For example, in a bone plate for the proximal femur comprising an elongate shaft portion and a head portion that is shorter and wider in comparison thereto, an especially high load occurs in the region of the through hole that is closest to the head portion, so that the risk of breakage is highest here. The object of the present invention is to provide a bone plate having a reduced risk of breakage upon a bending load on the bone plate.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds