Deflectable Acetabular Cup Guide for Hip Alignment
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current hip replacement surgery techniques face challenges in accurately orienting the acetabular cup implant due to difficulties in visualizing compound angles, non-uniform acetabular rims, limited access for patient-specific instruments, and fixed alignment angles, leading to potential deviations of up to 20 degrees from optimal positioning.
Innovation Solution
A compressible acetabular cup guide that expands within the acetabulum to register bone surfaces, featuring deflectable contact surfaces and a resilient hinge section, allowing precise alignment and registration of the cup implant, even in limited surgical exposure, and a method to capture and transfer this position for later cup implant placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a patient-specific instrument (PSI) guide is used to position hip cups, then positioning accuracy is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of registration increase due to limited access to acetabular bone surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The PSI guide is divided into multiple deflectable contact surfaces (first, second, and third contact surfaces) that can independently deflect to engage with different portions of the acetabular rim. This segmentation allows the guide to adapt to the curved acetabular anatomy while maintaining registration accuracy, resolving the contradiction between positioning precision and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide incorporates deflectable contact surfaces connected by resilient hinges that can dynamically adjust their position and orientation. The deflectable surfaces move from a compressed insertion state to an expanded registration state, allowing the guide to fit through limited surgical exposure while providing stable contact with the acetabular bone surfaces for accurate positioning.
2Measurement precision
If the surgical exposure is extended to accommodate a PSI guide, then registration accuracy is improved, but surgical time and tissue disruption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The PSI guide is designed with a nested structure where the deflectable contact surfaces are collapsed into a compact configuration for insertion through the existing surgical exposure. Once inserted, the guide expands by deflecting the contact surfaces outward to engage with the acetabular rim, achieving accurate registration without requiring extended surgical exposure or additional tissue disruption.
3Ease of operation
If conventional alignment guides are used with fixed angles, then ease of operation is improved, but positioning accuracy deteriorates due to inability to adapt to individual patient anatomy
Solution Approach 1:
The guide incorporates adjustable parameters through its deflectable contact surfaces that can be positioned at different angles and orientations. The resilient hinges allow the contact surfaces to be adjusted to match the specific anatomical curvature of each patient's acetabulum, enabling customization of inclination and anteversion angles while maintaining ease of operation through a simple insertion and expansion mechanism.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate and stable positioning of the acetabular cup implant with tactile feedback, ensuring precise alignment and reducing the risk of deviation from optimal angles, while minimizing tissue disruption and accommodating individual patient anatomy.
Implementation Method 1
the one or more deflectable contact surfaces comprise, at a proximal end, a resiliently deflectable hinge section
Implementation Method 2
a distal end which is shaped to allow removable connection to a surgical instrument
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
An acetabular cup guide can include a distal end (11) shaped to allow removable connection to a surgical instrument (16), a proximal end including one or more contact surfaces (4, 5) shaped to conform to an acetabulum, and a central proximal-distal axis extending through the acetabular cup guide. At least one of the one or more contact surfaces can be configured such that it is deflectable towards the central proximal-distal axis in order to reduce an axial cross-section of the acetabular cup guide.