Corrosive effect of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic on stainless-steel screws during implantation into man

Abstract

The corrosion of stainless-steel screws used to fix carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) plates to human fractures was compared with the corrosion on similar screws used to fix stainless-steel AO plates. Corrosive changes were noted in both sets of screws with similar frequency and severity; however, the stainless-steel plates were ‘in situ’ almost twice as long as the CFRP ones, showing that the corrosive changes occurred more rapidly on screws in contact with CFRP. Nevertheless, over the implantation time necessary for bone healing, corrosion was very mild and there is no clinical contra-indication to the use of stainless-steel and CFRP together in this particular application.