A Study of Experimental Trauma and Attempts to Stimulate Growth of the Lower Femoral Epiphysis in Rabbits—III

The placing of small nails of several different metals through the lower femoral epiphysis and across the epiphyseal cartilage of rabbits, both in the center and at the periphery of the plate, resulted in minor variations in length of the growing bone. In this small series of experiments slight retardation occurred more often than did slight stimulation, and in some animals neither occurred. The placing of two different metals through the lower femoral epiphysis and across the epiphyseal plate resulted in slight stimulation of growth of the femur in only two of ten rabbits. From these experiments it would appear that the placing of a metallic nail through the epiphysis of a long bone neither appreciably retards nor stimulates growth of the femur in the rabbit.