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DerbyDad03 DerbyDad03 is offline
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Default Screwing a broken ankle

On Nov 3, 12:56 am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article . com,





DerbyDad03 wrote:
I also found it surprising that in some cases, drilling a pilot
hole for the screw can weaken the bone by as much as 90%


Without any context, that statistic doesn't tell us much. They can
say that in "some cases" there's a 90% weakening, even if 99.99% of
the pilot holes only weaken the bone by 10%. All you need is a few
cases at 90% and you can make an "in some cases" claim sound
frightening.


I was watching CNN the other day and they were talking about the huge
disparity in death sentences given to one race over another. However,
they never gave any statistics related to the number of capital crimes
committed by either race. I'm not saying there isn't a disparity, but
how can I tell if the reported ratio of means anything unless they
also tell me the ratio of crimes committed by the races involved?


Statistics only have meaning when you know the full story behind the
data.


I'm with you there. Nothing annoys me more than statistics divorced from
context. But hey, it was *your* source! FWIW, here's the sentence, which
might not give the number teeth, but maybe enough gum to chew oatmeal.
At least the surgeon should have a vague idea that drilling holes can be
detrimental as well as beneficial.

"One final word on screws: in order to use them, you have to make a
screw hole in the bone or in the hardware that uses them. This is of
note because screw holes weaken whatever material they pass through. I
have read biomechanical estimates that one screw hole passing through
both cortices of a femoral shaft will weaken that femur by 90 % to some
types of stress."- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


But hey, it was *your* source!

It was my source for the difference between a hardware store screw and
a surgical screw. Any other data culled from that site becomes the
responsibility of the culler. ;-)