Orthopedic Implant Suture Bore Geometry for Tissue Anchorage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing orthopedic implants, such as hip and knee replacements, lack optimal suture bore geometries for attaching soft tissues, leading to suboptimal biomechanical force application and tissue manipulation during surgical procedures.
Innovation Solution
The implants feature angled or skewed suture bores within anatomical planes, allowing soft tissues to be advanced in superior-inferior and inferior-superior directions, with suture holes configured to approximate tissues to the implant, forming an X-shaped pattern for enhanced surface contact and stress distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If suture bores are oriented perpendicular to the implant surface, then the implant structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the biomechanical force application is suboptimal and tissue anchorage is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The suture bores are configured with asymmetric orientations relative to the implant surface, with each bore extending at a specific angle (e.g., 30-60 degrees) from the surface normal. This asymmetric geometry allows the sutures to engage tissue fibers more effectively and distribute forces along optimal biomechanical vectors, thereby improving tissue anchorage while maintaining a relatively simple overall bore structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the implant surface are equipped with suture bores having locally optimized orientations and angles tailored to the specific tissue attachment requirements at each location. This local quality approach ensures that each suture bore is positioned and angled to maximize its effectiveness for the particular anatomical site, improving overall reliability without requiring complete redesign of the entire implant structure.
2Ease of operation
If suture holes are positioned to allow tissue advancement in superior-inferior directions, then tissue manipulation is improved, but the suture hole configuration becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The suture holes are positioned and oriented in multiple spatial dimensions rather than a single plane, with bores extending at various angles in superior-inferior, anterior-posterior, and medial-lateral directions. This multi-dimensional configuration enables surgeons to manipulate and advance tissue in multiple directions simultaneously, greatly improving ease of operation during implantation while the systematic arrangement keeps the overall configuration manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The suture hole configuration is segmented into multiple discrete holes distributed across different surfaces and orientations of the implant. This segmentation allows each hole to serve a specific directional purpose for tissue advancement, making the overall complex configuration more manageable and easier to operate with during surgery, as each segment can be addressed independently.
3Reliability
If suture bores extend at acute angles with the longitudinal axis, then biomechanical force application is optimized, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The suture bores are designed with specific angular parameters (e.g., 30-60 degrees from the longitudinal axis) that optimize biomechanical force application. By carefully selecting and standardizing these angular parameters within a reasonable range, the design achieves optimal force distribution while allowing for normal manufacturing tolerances, thus balancing reliability improvement with manufacturability.
Solution Approach 2:
The optimal bore angles and orientations are predetermined and built into the implant design during the manufacturing planning stage. This preliminary action ensures that the critical angular parameters are established correctly from the outset, reducing the need for post-manufacturing adjustments and minimizing the impact of normal manufacturing variations on the final biomechanical performance.
Data Source
AI summary
Orthopedic implants and related surgical methods for using same. The implants have suture bore geometries that facilitate performance of the surgical methods, thereby providing for improved optimal biomechanical force application in various anatomies. The implants include suture bores that have an angled/diagonal, or skewed, orientation within the anatomical planes (lateral/sagittal and frontal/coronal). The suture bores have the skewed orientation so that the adjacent soft tissues (i.e., tendons or ligaments) can be advanced via the suture therethrough in superior-inferior and inferior-superior directions. Openings, or holes, at the ends of the suture bores are configured to approximate the adjacent associated soft tissue to the implant.