Bone Plate With Inward Lips For Screw Engagement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current bone plates for spinal fusion lack flexibility in accommodating varying vertebral sizes and spacing, leading to the need for large inventories and potentially compromising vertebral structural rigidity due to stress concentrations from drilled holes.
Innovation Solution
A bone plate with non-threaded apertures and slots featuring inwardly extending lips to engage bone screws, allowing for adjustable placement and reuse of distractor holes, reducing the need for additional drilling and minimizing stress on the vertebrae.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If traditional bone plates with drilled holes are used to secure vertebrae, then the vertebrae can be fixed in place, but the drilled holes create stress concentrations that compromise vertebral structural rigidity and predispose to fracture
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the screw engagement function from the vertebral bone itself and relocates it to the plate structure. By providing engagement features (lips, threads, or holes) directly on the plate that mate with protrusions on the screws, the plate assumes the load-bearing function, allowing the screws to engage the vertebrae without creating stress concentrations in the bone.
Solution Approach 2:
The engagement features on the plate serve as an intermediary between the screws and the vertebrae. Instead of screws directly engaging the bone (which creates stress concentrations), the plate's engagement features mediate the connection, distributing stresses within the plate material rather than concentrating them in the vertebral bone.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple different sized plates are carried in inventory to accommodate varying vertebral sizes and spacing, then all patient anatomies can be covered, but the device complexity and inventory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The plate incorporates adjustable engagement features that can be repositioned along the plate body. This dynamic repositionability allows a single plate design to accommodate varying vertebral sizes and spacings, replacing the need for multiple fixed-size plate variants in the inventory.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate is designed with universal engagement features that can accommodate different screw positions and vertebral configurations. This multi-functionality allows one plate design to serve multiple anatomical scenarios, reducing the need for specialized plate variants for different patient anatomies.
Data Source
AI summary
A bone plate is provided including a top and bottom surface. The bottom surface may be adapted to contact bone. The bone plate may further include a plurality of apertures, wherein each aperture includes an annular sidewall and a lip adjacent to the bottom surface of the bone plate. The bone plate may also include at least one slot, wherein the slot includes a sidewall and a lip adjacent to the bottom surface of the bone plate. A bone plate system and method of use are also provided.