HIGH CHROMIUM, LOW NICKEL STEEL IN THE OPERATIVE FIXATION OF FRACTURES

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report the experimental and clinical use of high chromium, low nickel steel in the operative treatment of fractures in the service of Drs. William Darrach and Clay Ray Murray. The reason for the choice of this material derives from some of the difficulties encountered in the use of other metals as well as from the guiding work of Zierold,¹ who studied the interaction between a series of metals and living tissue, and of Jones and Lieberman,² who concluded that a high chromium, low nickel alloy is least objectionable for internal fixation. Aside from the cases in which for mechanical or other reasons the operative method of treatment of fractures has failed, there has accumulated in this and other clinics a group of cases in which the plate or screws used in the mechanical fixation of the fractured bone have broken. The