Bone Screw Targeting Guides for Invisible Drill Trajectories
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Solution Overview
Problem
Guiding a screw or wire through bones during minimally invasive surgical procedures, such as MICA, is challenging due to the target point being inside the bone and not visible, making it difficult for less experienced surgeons to achieve the desired trajectory.
Innovation Solution
A targeting guide instrument with a first and second guide sleeve and an articulating arm that allows the guide wire or screw to pass through a predetermined location, ensuring accurate placement by maintaining an intersection point regardless of orientation changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional K-wire guidance methods are used, then the procedure is simple, but the trajectory precision is poor and difficult to control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a guide instrument as an intermediary device between the surgeon and the bone. The guide instrument includes a guide body with a guide hole that directs the K-wire along a predetermined trajectory. This intermediary structure ensures precise wire placement without requiring the surgeon to directly visualize or calculate the complex 3D trajectory, thus improving precision while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide instrument is pre-configured with a guide hole at a specific angle and position relative to the bone surface. This preliminary preparation of the guidance path allows the surgeon to simply insert the K-wire through the pre-established trajectory, eliminating the need for intraoperative trajectory calculation and ensuring consistent precision across different operators.
2Ease of operation
If the target point is inside the bone and not visible, then the surgical procedure is minimally invasive, but the ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide instrument serves as a mediator that translates the invisible internal target point into a visible external guidance structure. The guide body with its guide hole provides a physical pathway that visually indicates the correct insertion trajectory, allowing the surgeon to operate easily without directly seeing the target point inside the bone.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the 3D internal target point problem into a 2D surface guidance problem. The guide instrument contacts the bone at specific surface points and establishes a trajectory based on surface geometry, making the invisible internal target accessible through external surface measurements and markings.
3Manufacturing precision
If a guiding instrument is introduced to improve precision, then the trajectory accuracy improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide instrument is divided into distinct functional segments: a guide body with a guide hole for trajectory definition, positioning elements for securing the instrument to the bone, and adjustment mechanisms for adapting to different bone geometries. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall design by breaking down the complex guidance function into manageable parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide instrument is designed with universal features that allow it to be applied to different bone types and surgical scenarios. The guide body can be positioned and secured in various orientations, and the guide hole can be oriented at different angles, making a single instrument design suitable for multiple applications rather than requiring specialized tools for each case.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are bone screw drill targeting guides and methods for using such targeting guides that are useful in surgical procedures for correcting hallux valgus deformity.