Effect of internal fixation plates on microcirculation in under-plate cortical bones. Microangiography and scanning electronmicroscopy.

To elucidate the effect of the internal fixation plates on the local bone blood supply, we used microangiography and scanning electron microscopy to observe the morphological changes of microcirculation in the cortical bones obtained from intact rabbit tibiae on which plates of two different stiffness had been fixed for comparison. The results indicated that both rigid stainless steel plate and less rigid methyl methacrylate plate could induce the bone microcirculation under the plate to undergo a process from early depression to late reactive recruitment. The features of the microcirculation recruitment such as vascular number, arrangement and dilatation varied with plates of different stiffness and were more obvious in the cortex fixed by rigid stainless steel plate.