Abstract: A bendable bone plate (10) is disclosed which is adapted for use in situ as a conformable bone splint to fix the spatial relationship of at least two bone parts (80). The bone plate (10) has an elongated plate (11) made of a bendable material. A plurality of screw apertures (24) extending through the top (14) and bottom (16) surfaces are disposed along the length (L) of the plate. Bone screws (28) are inserted through the apertures into the underlying bone parts (80) to anchor the elongated plate (11) to the bone parts (80). At least two of the screw apertures (24) are disposed as a closely spaced pair (40) of screw apertures (24) with a “bend relief zone” (60) disposed between the closely spaced apart screw apertures (24). The bend relief zone (60) is disposed to allow the elongated plate (11) to be bent across the bend relief zone (60) up to a certain angle (A) without deforming the screw apertures (24) adjacent the bend relief zone (60).

Abstract: A bone plate is described which is adapted for use in situ to fix a spatial relationship of at least two bone parts. The bone plate has at least one pair of the bone screw apertures that are adjoined by a relief-space contiguous with the open space of the screw apertures themselves. An adjoined aperture pair forms a complex aperture and has a center-to-center distance of the apertures along an axis running through the centers of the apertures. The center-to-center distance is equal to or greater than the sum of the radii of the heads of the individual bone screw used with the aperture pair. At least one of the screw apertures has a screw head seat having at least one relief notch set into a surface of the screw head seat. The relief notch provides desirable advantages that are not similarly accomplished in their absence.