The present invention relates to a hybrid bone plate, and in particular to a hybrid bone plate, which allows for a more flexible application for a wide variety of bone geometries.
Bone plates are used for osteosynthesis applications, in particular for several kinds of fractures of bones. For this purpose, a wide variety of different bone plate geometries have been provided in order to meet the individual bone geometry and fracture situation of the patients to be treated.
To allow a flexible application of a bone plate, several approaches have been made, in order to allow a flexible orientation of for example screws for fixing the bone plate to the bone. For example, particularly designed threads have been provided in bore holes of a bone plate which allow for a variety of orientations of a bone screw when mounted to the bone and the bone plate. Further, bone plates have been proposed including inserts of an elastic material, which inserts were press-fitted into openings of the bone plate or by means of thread connections wherein such inserts also allow an application of the bone screws in different angles within a certain range. However, most of the previously known approaches do not allow a sufficient sterilization owing to the complicated geometry of the bone plate in the area of the screw holes or a save application. The reasons therefore may be on the one hand cavities, fissures and micro-slots when press-fitting an insert into a bone plate opening. On the other hand a bone plate may be optimized with respect to stability so that when using bone plates without inserts and turning in bone screws directly into an opening of a hard bone plate, it is possible to obtain debris particles occurring when turning a bone screw immediately into a bore hole or threaded bore hole of a bone plate. In particular, this may happen when using bone screws of a material being not adapted to match the material of the bone plate.