Soft Anchor Suture Traps for Load-Bearing Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a trade-off between the size of soft, all-suture anchors and their load-bearing capacity, limiting their possible uses, as anchor size determines the minimum pilot hole size and affects the anchor's ability to bear loads effectively.
Innovation Solution
A soft anchor design featuring a circular braided suture sleeve with a deployment suture that creates multiple traps through broach points, allowing the anchor to deform and expand within a pilot hole, enhancing its setting and load-bearing capabilities by engaging the anchor's ends to the hole's sides.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the anchor size is increased to improve load-bearing capacity, then the load-bearing capacity is improved, but the minimum pilot hole size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The deployment suture is segmented into multiple engagement sections within the sleeve, creating multiple traps that distribute and concentrate forces at different locations. This segmentation allows the suture to engage more effectively with the sleeve material, improving load-bearing capacity without increasing the overall anchor size
Solution Approach 2:
The deployment suture transitions from a linear configuration to a three-dimensional trapped configuration within the sleeve lumen. By creating lateral traps and central traps, the suture engages the sleeve in multiple spatial dimensions, maximizing the use of available space within the constraint of the sleeve diameter to achieve higher load-bearing capacity
2Volume of moving object
If the anchor size is decreased to use smaller pilot holes, then the minimum pilot hole size is reduced, but the load-bearing capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The deployment suture performs partial actions by engaging the sleeve at specific trap locations rather than uniformly throughout. The lateral traps engage the sleeve walls partially, while the central trap provides concentrated engagement in the middle, creating excessive local engagement that compensates for the reduced overall anchor size
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the engagement parameters of the deployment suture by creating multiple discrete trap locations with varying engagement characteristics. This parameter change allows the suture to maximize its interaction with the sleeve material within a smaller volume, maintaining load-bearing capacity despite reduced anchor size
Data Source
AI summary
A soft anchor having a sleeve, being a circular braided suture defining a lumen, and defining a first terminus, having a first terminus opening and a second terminus having a second terminus opening. Also, a deployment suture is engaged to the sleeve by extending into the lumen through a first broach point, then out of the sleeve through the first terminus opening, then into the sleeve through a second broach point, on the bottom-side, and then out of the lumen though a third broach point, then into the lumen through the second terminus opening and out of the suture though a fourth broach point, thereby creating a first lateral trap, between the first broach point and the first terminus opening, a second lateral trap, between the second terminal opening and the fourth broach point, and a central trap, between the second and third broach points.