The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 59, Issue 1 54-56, Copyright © 1977 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Fixation of Dwyer screws for the treatment of scoliosis. A postmortem study
HK Dunn and KE Bolstad
The strength of fixation of Dwyer screws in seven or eight vertebral bodies
in each of six fresh osteoporotic cadavera was measured under the following
conditions: with fixation with only the screw; with the staple-screw
combination; with each of these modes of fixation combined with
polymethylmethacrylate placed in the hole prior to insertion of the screw;
and with the screw reinserted after failure and filling the hole with
methacrylate. The strength of fixation of the screw-staple combination was
increased almost twofold by the methacrylate, and after failure followed by
reinsertion of the screw embedding it in methacrylate, strong fixation was
restored.