Abstract:

BACKGROUND: With the elevation of opposability and intensity of athletic competition, participants were affected by varied internal and external violence. Shape memory alloy, as a novel internal fixation material in the department of orthopedics, has obtained good outcomes in clinical therapy.
OBJECTIVE: To introduce therapeutic mechanisms of shape memory alloy, and to analyze the fracture-related outcomes.
METHODS: The author retrieved China National Knowledge Infrastructure from 1980 to 2011 and PubMed from 1980 to 2011. The key words were “memory alloy, bone, internal fixation, treatment”. The mechanism and outcomes of shape memory alloy on fracture were summarized.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 138 articles were retrieved, and 29 articles were included in accordance with inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. The therapeutic mechanisms of shape memory alloy were summarized, including material feature, working principle and clinical application of different instruments, clinical therapeutic measures and outcomes of fracture at different sites. Results indicated that shape memory alloy has many advantages of bone internal fixation materials, is a novel perfect material, but still has a certain operation risk. It is important to choose specialized internal fixation material for therapeutic outcomes in accordance with the anatomic morphological features of fracture site, requirement of special functions, shape, size and metal property of internal fixation material.