Evaluation of Synthetic Composite Tibias for Fracture Testing

Composite synthetic bones are widely used in orthopaedic research. They offer many advantages over post mortem human specimens, including low inter-specimen variability in both geometry and material properties, ready availability, and ease of handling, storage and disposal. Fourth generation models of Sawbones^® (Pacific Research Laboratories, Inc., Vashon, WA, USA) are made using a short glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin injected around a core of rigid polyurethane foam. These composite bones have been previously validated to replicate natural bone response at a quasi-static rate [1].