Disposable Bone Plate Kit for Foot and Ankle Fusion

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current orthopedic surgical procedures require a large inventory of variously sized bone plates and fasteners, which complicates sterilization and storage, and may lead to misplaced or lost components during procedures, necessitating a more streamlined and efficient surgical kit solution.

Innovation Solution

A disposable single-use surgical kit containing a sterile container with a limited set of specifically configured bone plates and unicortical fasteners, tailored for specific procedures like tarsal-metatarsal fusion, reducing the need for extensive inventory and minimizing component loss through optimized packaging and configuration.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a large inventory of variously sized bone plates and fasteners is maintained, then surgical versatility is improved, but sterilization and storage complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesurgical versatilityVSAvoidsterilization and storage complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the surgical kit into multiple disposable packages, each containing a specific subset of bone plates and fasteners tailored for particular surgical procedures. This allows hospitals to stock only the packages needed for their specific surgical needs rather than maintaining a comprehensive inventory of all possible bone plates and fasteners, thereby reducing sterilization and storage complexity while maintaining surgical versatility.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The bone plates and fasteners are pre-configured into procedure-specific disposable packages before sterilization. Each package contains the exact combination of components needed for a particular surgical procedure, eliminating the need for complex post-sterilization assembly and reducing storage complexity while ensuring surgical versatility is maintained.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Adaptability or versatility

If a large inventory of bone plates and fasteners is maintained, then surgical adaptability is improved, but component loss and misplacement increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesurgical adaptabilityVSAvoidcomponent loss

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges multiple bone plates and fasteners into a single integrated disposable package containing all components needed for a specific surgical procedure. This ensures that all components remain together from sterilization through storage to surgical use, eliminating the risk of component loss or misplacement that occurs when individual items are stored separately in a large inventory.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses disposable single-use packages containing bone plates and fasteners, which are sterilized as complete units and discarded after a single use. This eliminates the risk of component loss entirely, as each package is self-contained and does not require retrieval or assembly from a shared inventory, while still providing surgical adaptability through multiple procedure-specific package types.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

3Adaptability or versatility

If multiple differently sized bone plates are used, then patient anatomy adaptability is improved, but inventory management complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepatient anatomy adaptabilityVSAvoidinventory management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the bone plate inventory into multiple disposable packages, each containing a specific size and type of bone plate along with its corresponding fasteners. This allows the hospital to maintain a manageable inventory of procedure-specific packages rather than stocking every possible bone plate size and type, reducing inventory management complexity while preserving patient anatomy adaptability through selection of appropriate packages.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Each disposable package is customized with specific bone plates and fasteners sized and configured for particular anatomical regions and surgical procedures. This local quality approach ensures that each package contains precisely what is needed for specific patient anatomy types, maintaining adaptability while simplifying inventory management through standardized procedure-specific configurations.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS20220287747A1Bone plating kit for foot and ankle applications

Publication Date: 2022.09.15 TREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS INC

AI summary

A bone plate kit may be provided for a foot or ankle orthopedic procedure, such as a lapidus procedure. In some examples, the bone plate kit includes a sterile container that holds multiple unicortical bone plate fasteners and one or more bone plates. For example, the kit may contain two bone plates configured to be used together during a tarsal-metatarsal fusion procedure. Each of the two bone plates may be configured to span different regions of a tarsal-metatarsal joint. The unicortical bone plate fasteners can be used to secure the two bone plates to the first metatarsal and medial cuneiform of a patient undergoing a procedure. In some configurations, one of the bone plates is a helical bone plate while the other bone plate may or may not be a helical bone plate.