Clavicle Nail End Cap Locking Mechanism

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current treatments for clavicle fractures, such as pin fixation, often result in undesirable migration of the pin within the medullary canal, leading to chronic pain, weakness, and high nonunion rates, necessitating a more stable fixation method.

Innovation Solution

A clavicle fixation assembly featuring a clavicle end cap with a retaining device and a clavicular nail receptor, which securely captures and retains a fracture nail using incremental diameters and circumferential grooves, preventing lateral and medial movement through a locking mechanism.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If pin fixation is used within the medullary canal, then the procedure is simple, but the pin migrates within the medullary canal causing chronic pain and nonunion

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesimplicity of fixation procedureVSAvoidstability of pin position

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The fixation device is divided into two separate components: a nail inserted into the medullary canal and an end cap attached to the lateral end of the nail. This segmentation allows the nail to provide internal support while the end cap provides external stabilization, preventing pin migration while maintaining procedural simplicity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The end cap is designed to fit over the lateral end of the nail, creating a nested structure where the cap encapsulates the nail terminus. This nesting configuration anchors the nail within the clavicle by providing an external counterbalance, preventing migration while maintaining the simplicity of the original pin fixation approach

Inventive Principle:

Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

2Reliability

If clavicle plates with screws are used, then fracture stability is improved, but the device complexity and surgical invasiveness increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefracture stabilityVSAvoidcomplexity of fixation device

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The invention extracts the stabilization function from the complex plate-and-screw system and concentrates it into a single end cap component. By removing the need for multiple screws and a large plate, the device achieves fracture stability with minimal complexity, maintaining only the essential fixation function

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of securing the fracture from the outside with a plate, the invention inverts the approach by inserting a nail into the medullary canal and securing it from the lateral end with an end cap. This inverted configuration achieves stability with a simpler, more minimally invasive device

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Data Source

PatentUS8435272B2Clavicle nail with locking end cap

Publication Date: 2013.05.07 ARTHREX INC

AI summary

A device for reducing migration of a pin of an intramedullary fixation device, especially to reduce migration of a clavicle pin introduced in the medullary canal of the clavicle to fix a fractured clavicle bone. A clavicle nail with a curved tip is inserted within the medullary canal of the clavicle. The back end of the nail that extends out of the clavicle is provided with indentations or grooves. The back end of the nail is received in a hollow cavity of a cap, which locks onto the indentations or grooves of the nail. A screw is placed through an eyelet of the cap and turned into the clavicle to secure the cap to the clavicle. As a result, the nail is fixed within the medullary canal and undesirable migration of the pin within the medullary canal is reduced.