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The reported event could be confirmed.Device inspection revealed the following: the received screw was broken in half from the shaft.Appearance of the surface indicated towards a brittle fracture (appearance of a smooth surface) with abrupt breakage towards the end.Breakage of the screw from the shaft indicates towards its interaction with the nail from the top side under additional stress and movement of fracture.A clinical statement was requested for the evaluation of the provided medical data.Following statements are opined by him: ¿as there are no x-rays from directly after reduction this cannot be said for sure.We see a reversed oblique fracture with a long wedge fragment.It seems that the reduction was initially good.We see at the last fragment, that the proximal cerclage could not withstand the load of the weight and opened.If that happened in the meantime, there was no chance for the bone to heal in an adequate time frame.The breakage of the distal screw shows that there was movement in the fracture and the device.Otherwise the nail positioning looks correct.It does not look as if there is a patient related issue contributing to the breakage.It is the result of the very complicated fracture and the failure of the treatment¿ based on the product evaluation and medical opinion, the root cause of the failure is user-related.Although the nail positioning is correct, but the failure happened due to an improper treatment of the fracture.There was a complicated reversed oblique type fracture which required fixation with more than a nail.Even though two cerclages were used to hold the fracture, but due to the complication of the fracture, the whole setup could not take the load of the patient (patient being slightly overweight).Leading to the opening of the distal-most cerclage first and subsequent breakage of nail due to continuous load over a period of 3 months, as a result of failed fixation.This additional stress due to fracture movement was also being transferred to the distal screws, consequently the first in line i.E.The screw for static locking, broke suddenly in a brittle manner.A review of the device history for the reported lot did not indicate any abnormalities.No corrective actions are required at this time.No indications of material, manufacturing or design related problems were found during the investigation.A review of the labeling did not indicate any abnormalities.If any further information is provided, the complaint report will be updated.
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