Patient-Selectable Joint Arthroplasty Templates for Accurate Bone Cuts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current joint arthroplasty techniques face challenges in achieving accurate cuts and alignment due to differences in thickness and curvature between cartilage and underlying bone, leading to difficulties in integrating prosthetic implants and resulting in long-term complications such as loosening and limited therapeutic options.
Innovation Solution
The development of surgical tools featuring templates with contact surfaces that conform to the joint's anatomy, including guide apertures for directing surgical instruments, and attachment mechanisms that allow for rotation relative to anatomical and biomechanical axes, enabling precise cuts and improved alignment during joint repair procedures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional joint arthroplasty techniques are used, then the surgical procedure can be performed, but accurate cuts and alignment are difficult to achieve due to differences in thickness and curvature between cartilage and underlying bone
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical template is pre-configured with contact surfaces that match the specific patient's cartilage thickness and curvature characteristics before surgery. This preliminary customization allows the template to guide accurate bone cuts and alignment without requiring complex intraoperative adjustments, resolving the contradiction between precision and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The surgical template acts as an intermediary device between the cartilage surface and the bone cutting instruments. It transfers the anatomical information from the cartilage surface to guide the cutting tools, enabling accurate alignment despite the thickness and curvature variations between cartilage and bone, without requiring the instruments themselves to be complex.
2Reliability
If conventional surgical tools are used, then the procedure can be completed, but integration of prosthetic implants is difficult resulting in long-term complications such as loosening
Solution Approach 1:
The template is designed in advance to incorporate the specific anatomical features of the patient's joint, including contact surfaces that match the cartilage curvature and thickness. This preliminary customization ensures that the bone cuts and implant positioning will be optimally aligned for long-term stability, making the implant integration process straightforward and reliable.
Solution Approach 2:
The template provides localized contact surfaces that precisely match the specific anatomical region being operated on, rather than using a generic tool. This local customization ensures accurate alignment at the critical implant-bone interface, improving long-term stability while simplifying the integration process for that specific location.
3Manufacturing precision
If templates with conforming contact surfaces are used, then accuracy of bone cuts is enhanced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The template's contact surfaces are created as copies or replicas of the patient's actual cartilage surface geometry, obtained through preoperative imaging or intraoperative scanning. This copying approach captures the necessary anatomical information without requiring the template to contain complex active mechanisms, achieving high accuracy through geometric replication rather than mechanical complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are tools for repairing articular surfaces repair materials and for repairing an articular surface. The surgical tools are designed to be customizable or highly selectable by patient to increase the speed, accuracy and simplicity of performing total or partial arthroplasty.