Patient-Specific Resection Guide Locator for Precise Bone Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for total joint replacement surgeries, such as knee, hip, and ankle procedures, fail to provide accurate and efficient ways to locate resection guides in relation to a patient's body, leading to potential misalignment and complications.
Innovation Solution
A method using computer-aided design and medical imaging technologies to create anatomically accurate digital models of bones, which are then used to manufacture custom resection guide locators with complementary surface topographies, allowing for precise positioning of resection guides without external fixtures like intramedullary stems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional cutting guides with intramedullary stems and multiple pins are used, then the guides can be manually aligned with the femoral shaft axis, but the device complexity increases and manual alignment accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical guide is divided into separate functional components: a bone-anchoring portion with surface-mating features that attaches directly to the bone, and a guide portion that receives the cutting guide. This eliminates the need for complex intramedullary stems and multiple pins while maintaining alignment accuracy through direct bone contact and complementary surface engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The bone engagement portion incorporates a digital model of the patient's specific bone surface topography, creating a complementary mating surface that precisely replicates the unique anatomical features. This digital copying approach enables accurate positioning without requiring complex mechanical alignment fixtures, directly resolving the contradiction between precision and complexity.
2Productivity
If manual alignment of cutting guides is performed during surgery, then the mechanical axis can be determined from radiographs, but the time required for alignment increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The bone engagement portion is pre-configured with the patient's unique surface topography data obtained from preoperative imaging. This preliminary customization allows the guide to be rapidly positioned and secured during surgery without time-consuming manual alignment procedures, significantly improving surgical efficiency while reducing alignment time.
3Manufacturing precision
If computer-aided design and imaging technology are used to create patient-specific guides, then manufacturing precision improves, but the ease of manufacture decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process transitions from traditional mechanical fabrication to additive manufacturing (3D printing), fundamentally changing the manufacturing parameters and methods. This enables the production of complex, patient-specific geometries with high precision that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional manufacturing, while actually simplifying the overall production process through digital file-driven fabrication.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes mapping a contoured surface of at least one bone onto a digital model of a resection guide locator using a processor to create a digital model of a customized resection guide locator and manufacturing the customized resection guide locator. The customized resection guide locator includes a complementary surface of the at least one bone and a wall having a shape that is complementary to an outer profile of a resection guide and defining a pocket. A first elongate slot and at least one first hole are positioned within the pocket such that the first elongate slot aligns with a second elongate slot defined by the resection guide and the at least one first hole aligns with at least one second hole defined by the resection guide when the resection guide is received within the pocket of the customized resection guide locator.