Bone Fixation Plate With Positioning Pin And Temporary Wire

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods for fixing bone fractures, such as external fixators and bone fixation plates, face challenges in accurately aligning and stabilizing multiple bone fragments, often requiring invasive procedures and leading to complications like reflex sympathetic dystrophy and pin issues, while existing temporary fixation methods are cumbersome and inefficient.

Innovation Solution

A bone fixation assembly featuring a plate with distinct apertures for temporary and permanent fixation, utilizing a temporary fixation wire with an abutment member to compress the plate against the bone, preventing movement and allowing for precise alignment before permanent screw insertion.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a K-wire is used to temporarily fix the bone plate, then the plate can be held in position, but the positioning process becomes difficult and tedious due to the need for precise alignment to prevent movement

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveplate positioning stabilityVSAvoidwire positioning difficulty
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a positioning pin as an intermediary device that mediates between the K-wire and the bone plate. The positioning pin fits into a positioning hole in the bone plate, providing a guided pathway that ensures proper alignment and prevents plate movement during imaging, thereby simplifying the operation while maintaining reliability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The positioning hole is pre-formed in the bone plate at the correct location and orientation before the K-wire insertion. This preliminary preparation of the positioning hole guides the K-wire into the correct position, eliminating the need for difficult real-time alignment adjustments and preventing plate movement

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If holding clamps are used to attach to the bone fixation plate, then temporary fixation is achieved, but the procedure becomes more invasive

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetemporary fixation stabilityVSAvoidinvasiveness
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the essential fixation function from the invasive holding clamp design and implements it through a less invasive mechanism. Instead of using clamps that require invasive attachment to the bone or plate, the invention uses a K-wire positioned through a positioning hole with a positioning pin, achieving temporary fixation with minimal invasion to the bone and soft tissues

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Adaptability or versatility

If multiple holes are drilled in the bone for plate repositioning, then alignment can be adjusted, but unnecessary bone damage occurs

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveplate repositioning capabilityVSAvoidbone damage
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The positioning hole is pre-formed in the bone plate at the correct location and orientation before final plate placement. This preliminary positioning hole guides the K-wire and positioning pin, allowing the plate to be held securely in the correct position without requiring multiple trial holes to be drilled in the bone, thereby preventing unnecessary bone damage while maintaining repositioning capability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2713918B1Assemblies for aligning a bone fixation plate
Publication Date: 2022.06.01 SYNTHES GMBH
  • EP2713918B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2713918B1 patent drawingFigure 2A~2B
  • EP2713918B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~3B

AI summary

A bone fixation assembly is provided, including a bone fixation plate that has a plurality of apertures having different cross-sectional dimensions, and a temporary fixation wire. The temporary fixation wire includes an abutment member that can compress the bone fixation plate against an underlying bone so that the alignment of the bone fixation plate on the bone can be analyzed prior to using bone fixation members to permanently attach the bone fixation plate to the underlying bone.