System of preoperative planning and provision of patient-specific surgical aids

Abstract

A method for assisting a user with surgical implementation of a preoperative plan includes generating a physical native tissue model of a native patient tissue. The physical native tissue model includes at least one primary patient tissue area including a surface of interest, at least one secondary patient tissue area including no surfaces of interest, and a base surface for engaging a supporting structure. The physical native tissue model, as generated, includes at least one information feature providing clinically useful information to the user. The information feature is substantially separated from the surface of interest. An apparatus for assisting a user with surgical implementation of a preoperative plan is also provided.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 282,550, filed 27 Oct. 2011 and claiming priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 408,392, filed 29 Oct. 2010, the subject matter of both of which is incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002]The present invention relates to a preoperative planning system and, more particularly, to a system of preoperative planning and provision of patient-specific surgical aids.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The scapula, commonly known as the “shoulder blade”, is a flat, triangular bone that lies over the back of the upper ribs. A right scapula 100 is depicted in posterior, anterior, and right side views in FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C, respectively. The posterior surface of the scapula 100 can be readily felt through a patient's skin. The scapula 100 serves as an attachment point for some of the muscles and tendons of the arm, neck, chest, and back, and aids in the movements of...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for assisting a user with surgical implementation of a preoperative plan. This involves generating a physical native tissue model of a native patient tissue, which includes at least one surface of interest and a base surface for engaging a supporting structure. The model also includes at least one information feature providing clinically useful information to the user, such as a landmark indicating a marking location or a predetermined orientation of the base surface. The invention allows for improved preoperative planning and surgical modification of the native patient tissue.

Problems solved by technology

The scapula 100 is also well padded with muscle, so that it may be difficult to palpate boney landmarks.

When the scapula has bone loss and / or significant pathology due to disease or trauma, the standard glenoid component 216 may be difficult to implant and / or may not enable desired shoulder function, if it cannot be implanted in a preferred manner.

However, the surgeon cannot always readily determine whether even a remodeled glenoid vault 110 will fit as desired with a standard prosthesis because the surgeon does not know how a “normal” glenoid vault 110 (for which the standard prosthesis is designed) should be shaped for that patient.

However, using a unique prosthesis design for each patient can result in future biomechanical problems resulting from a non-proven design and takes away the familiarity that the surgeon will likely have with standardized prosthesis designs.

Thus, prosthesis designs that are entirely customized are considered sub-optimal solutions and may also be extremely expensive to design and produce.

Depending upon the patient's particular anatomy, the surgeon may not be able to precisely determine the location of the exposed area relative to the remaining, obscured portions of the bone through mere visual observation.

These factors, particularly in a minimally invasive surgical procedure, may make it difficult for the surgeon to orient the glenoid vault during surgery.

During surgery, and particularly minimally invasive procedures, the plane of the scapula may be difficult or impossible to determine by direct visual inspection, resulting in the need for assistive devices or methods to define both the pathologic version present at the time of surgery and the intended correction angle.

However, surgical navigation arrangements of this type are not wholly satisfactory since they generally use only a low number of measured landmark points to register the patient's anatomy and to specify the angle of the prosthetic implant component (e.g., a glenoid component 216), which may not provide the desired level of accuracy.

Further, the information provided by such systems may be difficult to interpret and may even provide the user with a false sense of security.

Moreover, these systems are generally expensive to install and operate and also have high user training costs.

While these trial systems may help with checking whether the selected position is correct, they are not well-suited to specify the correct position initially, and thus there still is user desire for a system which may assist a user in placement of prosthetic implant component in a prepared native tissue site.

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