Rotatable Holder Medullary Nail for Tool Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medullary nails require space-consuming constructions to align tool guide channels with through-holes at different angular positions, making it difficult to efficiently align tools with the shank during bone surgery.
Innovation Solution
A medullary nail design where the holder connected to the shank can rotate about its longitudinal axis, synchronously rotating the target body via gear means, ensuring guide channels in the target body align with through-holes in the shank, allowing for space-saving alignment of tools with through-holes at various angles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If semi-circular target bodies with guide channels along their circumference are used to align tools with through-holes at different angular positions, then alignment capability is improved, but device complexity and space consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The holder is made rotatable about the longitudinal axis of the shank, allowing dynamic adjustment of the target body's angular position. This enables a single target body to align guide channels with through-holes at different angular positions by rotating the holder to the appropriate orientation, eliminating the need for multiple fixed target bodies or complex semi-circular constructions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If semi-circular target bodies are used to provide guide channels for different angular positions, then alignment versatility is improved, but the space required increases
Solution Approach 1:
By making the holder rotatable, the guide channels can be dynamically positioned to align with through-holes at different angular positions. This eliminates the need for a large semi-circular target body that would be required to accommodate all angular positions simultaneously, thereby reducing the space required while maintaining full alignment versatility.
3Ease of operation
If the holder is made rotatable to enable alignment with different through-holes, then ease of operation is improved, but maintaining consistent angular position between shank and target body becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Gear means are provided between the holder and the target body to ensure synchronous rotation. When the holder is rotated to align guide channels with through-holes, the gear mechanism automatically rotates the target body by the same angle, maintaining the consistent angular relationship between corresponding features of the shank and target body. This feedback mechanism ensures precision is maintained despite the rotatable holder.
Solution Approach 2:
The gear means act as an intermediary mechanism between the rotatable holder and the target body. This intermediary ensures that the rotation of the holder is accurately transmitted to the target body, maintaining the angular relationship without requiring direct mechanical coupling that would constrain the holder's rotatability.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple guide channels are provided in the target body for different angular positions, then alignment versatility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of providing multiple guide channels in fixed positions, the invention uses a rotatable holder with guide channels that can be dynamically oriented. A single guide channel in the rotatable holder can align with multiple through-holes at different angular positions by rotating the holder to different orientations, eliminating the need for multiple fixed guide channels and reducing device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design allows for efficient alignment of tools with through-holes by maintaining consistent angular positions between the shank and target body, simplifying the process and reducing the need for extensive space, while ensuring only one guide channel aligns with a through-hole at a time, facilitating precise tool insertion.
Implementation Method 1
gear means are provided which rotate the holder rotate the target body synchronously relative to the shaft by the same angle of rotation relative to the holder
Data Source
AI summary
In order to achieve the most space-saving design possible for an intramedullary nail with a shaft that can be inserted into the medullary canal of a long bone, which has several diametrically opposed through-holes at different angles with respect to the longitudinal axis of the shaft, and with a target body connected to the shaft via a holder and arranged at a distance from it, which has guide channels for a tool that are each aligned with a through-hole of the shaft, and at the same time to achieve a simplified alignment of the guide channels with the through-holes, it is proposed that the holder of the shaft be rotatably connected to the shaft about the longitudinal axis of the shaft and rotatably connected to the target body about a parallel axis of rotation, that gear means be provided which, when the holder is rotated relative to the shaft, simultaneously rotate the target body relative to the holder by the same angle of rotation.so that the shaft and the target body always maintain an unchanged angular position relative to each other in all angular positions of the holder, and that the guide channels in the target body are oriented angularly in the same way as the through holes in the shaft.