Patient-Specific Alignment Guide for Proximal Femur Surgery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current instrumentation for hip joint surgeries is difficult to use, time-consuming, and invasive, lacking specific focus on the unique orientations required for proper prosthetic placement in the hip joint, particularly for femoral head resurfacing procedures.
Innovation Solution
Patient-specific alignment guides are designed to conform to the femoral neck and head, using data from imaging and computer-aided design/manufacturing techniques, featuring a neck portion, head underside, and arms that grip the femur to accurately position and orient instrumentation for minimally invasive surgeries like anterior approach hip resurfacing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional instrumentation is used for hip joint surgery, then the surgery can be performed with standard tools, but the procedure becomes time-consuming and difficult to use
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment guide is divided into multiple functional segments: a neck portion that wraps around the femoral neck, a head portion that contacts the femoral head, and multiple arms with inner surfaces that conform to specific bone portions. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently, reducing overall surgery time while maintaining ease of use.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment guide is pre-configured with inner surfaces that are negative impressions of the patient's specific bone anatomy, obtained through imaging data and computer-aided design. This preliminary customization eliminates the need for time-consuming intraoperative adjustments and simplifies the surgical procedure by providing ready-to-use alignment references.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional instrumentation is used for hip joint surgery, then standard procedures can be followed, but the invasiveness increases and recovery time lengthens
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment guide features localized contact surfaces designed to interact with specific portions of the femur: the neck portion wraps around the femoral neck while the head portion contacts the femoral head. This localized interaction enables precise alignment control with minimal disruption to surrounding tissues, reducing surgical invasiveness and facilitating faster recovery.
3Measurement precision
If patient-specific instrumentation is developed for the hip joint, then proper orientation for prosthetic placement can be achieved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment guide serves multiple functions within a single integrated structure: it provides alignment references for the femoral neck and head, guides instrument positioning, and ensures proper orientation for prosthetic placement. This multi-functionality achieves high alignment accuracy without proportionally increasing device complexity, as the various functions are combined in one cohesive guide rather than requiring separate instruments.
Data Source
AI summary
An alignment guide for aligning instrumentation along a proximal femur includes a neck portion configured to wrap around a portion of the neck of the femur, a head underside portion configured to abut a disto-lateral portion of the femoral head and a medial head portion configured to overlie a medial portion of the head. Portions of the guide can have an inner surface generally a negative of the femoral bone of a specific patient that the guide overlies; such surfaces can be formed using data obtained from the specific patient. The neck portion can be configured to rotationally stabilize the guide by abutting and generating a first gripping force on the neck. The femoral head portions can be configured to grip the head portion of the femur and can support a bore guide that is configured to guide an instrument to the femur in a specified location and along a given axis.