Bone Repositioning Guides for Precise Bunion Realignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bunion correction surgeries are invasive, painful, and lack precise control over bone alignment, often requiring trial-and-error during surgery and lacking customizable guides for pre-planned resections.
Innovation Solution
A surgical system using alignment and resection guides with cannulas and k-wires to accurately realign bones, allowing for precise correction of bone deformities like bunions by intersecting bones with non-parallel axes and using k-wires for stabilization and bone plates for fixation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional bunion correction surgery is performed without customized guides, then the surgery can be performed with standard procedures, but the alignment precision is poor and trial-and-error is required during surgery
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating customized surgical guides before surgery based on pre-operative imaging (CT or MRI scans). The guides are manufactured in advance with precise geometric features that encode the planned bone resection angles and alignment corrections, eliminating the need for trial-and-error during surgery and achieving high alignment precision from the start.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies copying by creating physical surgical guides that replicate the virtual surgical plan developed from patient-specific imaging data. The guides are essentially physical copies of the digital correction plan, transferring the precise alignment parameters from the virtual model to the actual surgical field, thereby achieving measurement precision without requiring complex intraoperative adjustments.
2Manufacturing precision
If invasive surgical procedures are used for bunion correction, then bone realignment can be achieved, but patient pain and recovery time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent minimizes surgical trauma by performing all planning and measurement procedures before surgery. The customized guides are manufactured in advance with pre-marked resection lines and alignment features, allowing the surgeon to simply follow the guide's instructions during surgery without making complex judgments or repeated adjustments, thereby reducing operative time and tissue trauma.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces customized surgical guides as intermediary devices that mediate between the virtual surgical plan and the physical bone resection. These guides serve as a bridge, translating the digital correction plan into precise physical cuts without requiring the surgeon to directly measure and calculate alignment parameters during surgery, thereby reducing surgical complexity and patient trauma.
3Adaptability or versatility
If standardized surgical guides are used, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability to individual patient anatomy and deformity patterns is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the surgical guide into multiple components or features that can be independently customized based on patient-specific anatomy. The guide may include separate modules for different bones (metatarsal, cuneiform), different resection planes, and different alignment corrections, allowing each element to be tailored to the individual patient's deformity pattern while maintaining overall guide functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by customizing specific regions or features of the surgical guide to match local anatomical variations in each patient's foot. Different parts of the guide can have different geometries, angles, and positioning features that correspond to the unique characteristics of the patient's bone structure, joint alignment, and deformity location, rather than using a uniform design throughout.
Data Source
AI summary
An improved surgical system and procedure for correcting a deformity between first and second bones using an alignment guide based on a correction factor. The correction factor can be based on a virtual model of the first and second bones in a deformed configuration and a corrected configuration. In the virtual corrected configuration, first and second virtual axes can be fixed in the respective first and second bones. When reverted to the virtual deformed configuration, the orientation of the first and second axes can be used to determine the correction factor. The alignment guide is used to insert one or more k-wires into each of the first and second bones in a deformed configuration. A correction guide is passed along the k-wires to rotate and/or translate the first bone relative to the second bone into the corrected configuration.