screw (redirected from Phillips-head screw)

screw

[skro̅o̅]

Etymology: MFr, escroue

a solid cylinder with a helical thread on its exterior surface, used to hold two objects together.

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screw

1. a mechanical device for fixing one object to another, characterized by a spiral ridge cut on the external surface of a cylindrical rod of decreasing diameter towards its point. This is a male screw. In a female screw the screw is cut on the inside of a cylindrical cavity.

2. a colloquial term for a worn out or inferior horse.

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AISF bone screw

see buttress thread bone screw.

buttress thread bone screw

the thread is not a simple V as in the standard thread but has one side of the groove at right angles to the direction of the screw and the other side at a 45° angle. Called also AISF, Howmett compression, Richards-Bechtol.

cancellous bone screw

has a coarse thread; threaded to only the first third of the length of the screw.

cortical screw

threaded the full length of the screw; fine thread to hold in dense bone.

Howmett compression bone screw

see buttress thread bone screw.

lag bone screw

used as a compressing unit between two fragments with the first half of the screw near the point threaded, with the diameter of the ridges greater than that of the unthreaded half near the head. As the ridged part of the screw bites in the walls of the drill hole in the distal fragment, the unthreaded part is free to move within the drill hole in the proximal fragment, thus compressing the two pieces of bone together.

Richards-Bechtol bone screw

see buttress thread bone screw (above).

standard bone screw

with a V thread the full length of the screw, with a single slot, cruciate or Phillips head.

transfixation screw

orthopedic screw used to reattach bone fragments to a solid skeletal part. The proximal part near the head is not threaded and needs to be of a smaller diameter than the threaded portion nearer the tip.

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screw

noun Orthopedics A ubiquitous threaded internal fixation device, usually constructed of stainless steel, commonly used to fix bones in place, either alone or with a plate. See Bionx absorbable cannulated screw, Cancellous screw, Cannellated screw, Cortical screw, Cross-locking screw, Herbert screw, Interference screw, Lag screw Vox populi verb 1. Popular, 'to treat unfairly' 2. Vulgar; to have intercourse