Absorbable bone plate

Claim 1

An absorbable bone plate comprising an elongated bar-like body having a lower surface, an upper surface, opposite sides and opposite ends, a plurality of screw holes extending through said plate from the upper surface through the lower surface, the width of the plate being extended around the screw holes as a reinforcement and in which the thickness of the plate is extended on the upper surface of the plate in an arcuate shape around the screw holes as a reinforcement area so that the stresses developed around the screw holes on implantation are not significantly greater than the highest stresses developed in any unreinforced area of the plate, and in which the dimensions of the plate meet the limitations: ##EQU2## where: W is one half the width of the unreinforced plate R is the radius of the side reinforcement of the plate measured from the centerline of a screw hole H is the height of the top reinforcement measured from the unreinforced top surface of the plate r is the radius of the top reinforcement of the plate measured from a point on the centerline of a screw hole d' 2 is the distance from the centerline of the screw hole to the point where the top reinforcement intersects the unreinforced top of the plate d 2 is the distance from the transverse centerline of the screw hole to the point where the side reinforcement intersects the unreinforced side of the plate L is the distance between adjacent screw holes measured from the screw hole centerlines R 1 is the radius of the countersink measured from the screw hole centerline r 2 is the radius of curvature of the bottom of the plate k is the minimum unreinforced thickness of the plate measured from the top of the radius of curvature of the bottom of the plate to the unreinforced top of the plate T is the unreinforced plate thickness at the side edge of the plate h is the difference between T and k.