K-Wire Guided Bone Repositioning for Precise Bunion Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bunion correction surgeries are invasive, painful, and lack precise control over bone alignment, often requiring trial-and-error and inadequate guides for pre-planned resections.
Innovation Solution
A surgical system using alignment and resection guides with cannulas and k-wires to accurately realign bones, allowing for precise correction of bone deformities like bunions by intersecting bones with non-parallel axes and using k-wires to guide resection tools for customized bone fusion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional invasive bunion correction surgery is performed, then bone alignment can be corrected, but surgical complexity and patient trauma increase
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical guide is designed and prepared beforehand based on pre-operative imaging and planning. The guide incorporates pre-calculated resection angles and alignment parameters, allowing the surgeon to execute the pre-planned correction without complex intraoperative adjustments. This preliminary preparation transfers complexity from the surgical procedure to the guide design phase, simplifying the actual surgery while maintaining high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The surgical guide acts as an intermediary device between the pre-operative digital plan and the physical bone resection. It translates the virtual correction plan into physical guidance for saw cuts and drill holes, serving as a mediator that eliminates the need for complex real-time calculations and adjustments during surgery. The guide embodies the correction geometry, making the complex plan executable through simple follow-the-guide actions.
2Manufacturing precision
If trial-and-error method is used for bone resection, then flexibility is maintained, but surgical time and precision are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
All resection parameters including angles, depths, and orientations are calculated and embodied in the surgical guide before the patient enters the operating room. This eliminates the need for trial-and-error resections during surgery. The surgeon simply follows the pre-determined guidance features, achieving high precision without time-consuming intraoperative adjustments or multiple resection attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The trial-and-error mechanical adjustment process is replaced by a predetermined mechanical guide system. Instead of repeatedly measuring, calculating, and adjusting resection parameters during surgery, the pre-calculated guide physically constrains and directs the resection tools along the exact planned paths, substituting iterative mechanical trial-and-error with a single-pass guided execution.
3Manufacturing precision
If adequate guides are provided for pre-planned resections, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical guide is segmented into distinct functional modules: registration features that attach to anatomical landmarks, guidance features that direct resection and drilling, and reference features that establish coordinate systems. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall design by breaking down the complex function into manageable, well-defined elements that can be manufactured and assembled systematically.
Data Source
AI summary
An improved surgical system and procedure for correcting a deformity between first and second bones using an alignment guide based on a correction factor. The correction factor can be based on a virtual model of the first and second bones in a deformed configuration and a corrected configuration. In the virtual corrected configuration, first and second virtual axes can be fixed in the respective first and second bones. When reverted to the virtual deformed configuration, the orientation of the first and second axes can be used to determine the correction factor. The alignment guide is used to insert one or more k-wires into each of the first and second bones in a deformed configuration. A correction guide is passed along the k-wires to rotate and/or translate the first bone relative to the second bone into the corrected configuration.