Pre-contoured superior locking plates offer poor bone fit for midshaft clavicle fracture fixation: cadaveric analysis of 4 commercially available systems

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to verify how commercially available pre-contoured superior plates fit on clavicle midshaft fractures. METHODS: 100 cadaveric clavicles were evaluated by three distinct observers applying the clavicle congruence score and comparing four different 6 to 8-hole pre-contoured anatomic locking-plate systems. RESULTS: the inter-observer agreement was considered moderate by the percentage agreement and fair by the Fleiss’ Kappa, with no significant differences between evaluations. Only 1 of the 8 plates presented an anatomic fit greater than 70%. Long plates (8 holes) presented a poor fit compared to short plates (6 or 7 holes). CONCLUSIONS: the overall evaluation showed that currently-available pre-contoured superior plate systems provide a poor fit on clavicles for midshaft fracture fixations. Long plates present a worse fit compared to short ones.