[Total endoprosthetic replacement of femur, humerus and tibia]. / Endoprothetischer Totalersatz von Femur, Humerus und Tibia.

Improvements in diagnostics and effectiveness of chemotherapy have resulted in most patients with primary malignant bone tumours being candidates for limb salvage surgery. Herewith, the use of modern modular tumour endoprostheses allows for the replacement of all big joints and even entire long bones such as the femur, humerus and tibia. In this article, we focus on individual prerequisites for and challenges with performing a total endoprosthetic reconstruction of the above-mentioned anatomic structures. Additionally, data from the literature with regards to functional outcome, problems and complications are presented.

Ultrahigh resolution focused electron beam induced processing: the effect of substrate thickness.

It is often suggested that the growth in focused electron beam induced processing (FEBIP) is caused not only by primary electrons, but also (and even predominantly) by secondary electrons (SEs). If that is true, the growth rate for FEBIP can be changed by modifying the SE yield. Results from our Monte Carlo simulations show that the SE yield changes strongly with substrate thickness for thicknesses below the SE escape depth. However, our experimental results show that the growth rate is independent of the substrate thickness. Deposits with an average size of about 3 nm were written on 1 and 9 nm thick carbon substrates. The apparent contradiction between simulation and experiment is explained by simulating the SE emission from a carbon substrate with platinum deposits on the surface. It appears that the SE emission is dominated by the deposits rather than the carbon substrate, even for deposits as small as 0.32 nm(3).