Biomechanical comparison of the hand-based transplant used in bone-tissue-bone scapho-lunate ligament reconstruction

Abstract Although work has been published comparing the five most commonly used transplant techniques to the properties of the scapho-lunate interosseous ligament (SLIL), no study has been carried out which compares the biomechanical properties of the different bone-tissue-bone autografts to each other, using a standard methodology of testing. The hypothesis of this study was that mechanically significant differences in the material properties of commonly used bone-tissue-bone exist when compared to each other. We tested the dorsal part of the SLIL and the five most quoted transplants in the literature: capitate to trapezoid; trapezoid to second metacarpal; third metacarpal-carpal; dorsal capitate-hamate; 4–5 extensor retinaculum. For each transplant, we measured failure load, failure displacement, width, and thickness. Anova was used to compare the different results obtained and the level of significance attributed to P P  > 0.05) difference in term of load to failure, all the others was significantly weaker ( P