Bends made easy

injury, 15, 145

Wrinkle

145

Printed in Great Britain

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Bends made easy D. Finlayson Orthopaedic Registrar, Western Infirmary, Glasgow

A. Nicol Bioengineer, Strathclyde University, Glasgow

IN reviewing a series of olecranon fractures treated by tension-band wiring we have noted the difficulty some operators have in bending and impacting the longitudinal wires (Mtiller et al., 1979). There is an unwelcome incidence of symptoms related to these wires, which may be minimized by correct bending or by passing the tension band through drill holes (Chaplin, 1975). We suggest use of the turnbuckle of the A0 wire tightener to bend these wires, see Fig. 1. This simple manoeuvre, using equipment already available, allows

thick wires to be fully bent without displacing the fracture.

even

REFERENCES

Chaplin D. M. (1975) Tension band wiring: a method to prevent ‘backing out’ of the Kirschner wire. Injury 7, 57. Miiller M. E., AllgGwer M., Schneider R. et al. (1979) Manual of Internal Fixation. Berlin Springer Verlag, pp 44-45, 188-189. Paper accepted 2 1 December

(i

1982.

(ii) Fig. 1.

Requests for reprints should be addressed to: Dr D. Finlayson, the Western Infirmary, Glasgow.