Femoral Component With a Contoured Interface for Bone Conservation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing femoral components in knee replacement surgeries require significant bone resection, leading to reduced bone strength and increased surgical time due to non-patient-specific designs.
Innovation Solution
Development of femoral prosthetic components with contoured interface surfaces that match the patient's anatomical contours, allowing for minimal bone resection and improved fixation, utilizing advanced cutting tools and computer-assisted surgery for precise bone preparation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a five-cut or five-surface baseline configuration is used for the femoral component, then manufacturing cost is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but bone resection volume increases significantly reducing bone strength
Solution Approach 1:
The interface surface is designed with varying local geometries including planar portions for flat cuts and contoured portions for curved surfaces, allowing each region to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall manufacturability
Solution Approach 2:
The femoral component is pre-contoured during manufacturing to match the patient's anatomical surface, so that when implanted, minimal bone resection is required - the bone is prepared in advance to match the implant geometry rather than requiring extensive removal
2Device complexity
If a five-cut or five-surface baseline configuration is used for the femoral component, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but surgical time increases due to extensive bone preparation
Solution Approach 1:
The interface surface incorporates both planar and contoured regions, allowing the surgeon to use simple flat cuts where appropriate while maintaining anatomical conformity in critical areas, reducing overall surgical time
Solution Approach 2:
The implant is pre-shaped to match the patient's anatomy before surgery, so that bone preparation involves minimal removal rather than extensive reshaping, significantly reducing surgical time
3Adaptability or versatility
If a non-patient-specific design is used for the femoral component, then adaptability to different patients is improved through scaling, but bone resection volume increases reducing bone strength
Solution Approach 1:
The interface surface is customized for each patient's specific anatomy with unique contoured portions matching their individual bone surface characteristics, rather than using a generic scaled design, allowing precise fit with minimal bone removal
4Reliability
If extensive bone resection is performed to accommodate the femoral component, then implant fixation is improved, but bone strength is significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The interface surface is customized for each patient's specific anatomy with unique contoured portions matching their individual bone surface characteristics, allowing precise fit with minimal bone removal while maintaining fixation reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The contoured interface surface follows the natural curvature of the patient's bone surface, creating optimal contact area and distribution of stresses, improving fixation without requiring extensive bone removal
Data Source
AI summary
A femoral prosthetic component includes a patellar guide portion, a pair of condyles projecting from the guide portion and forming an intercondylar notch therebetween, a bearing surface, and an interface surface configured to face a resected surface of a femur. The interface surface comprises an anterior face and a posterior face, and is substantially contoured between the anterior and posterior face to match a contoured surface of the femur. The substantially contoured interface surface may include at least one planar surface portion to about a flat cut portion in the surface of the femur. This planar surface portion may be a distal flat at a distal face of the interface surface. The contoured interface surface may alternatively include a plurality of planar surface portions. The femoral prosthetic component is configured such that preparation of the bone to match the interface surface results in minimal resection of the distal femur.