Vertebral Implant System for Spinal Realignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current spinal correction methods, such as decompression and fusion procedures, often fail to address the underlying causes of back and leg pain caused by vertebral body collapse and degenerative scoliosis, leading to poor outcomes, adjacent level disease, and continued pain due to misalignment and stress on adjacent spine segments.
Innovation Solution
An orthopedic implant system comprising a plate, staple, and coupling device that allows for patient-specific sagittal and coronal alignment, used as an intravertebral or intervertebral implant to stabilize and realign vertebral bodies, thereby relieving nerve compression and maintaining spinal mobility, while preventing further degeneration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If decompression and fusion procedures are used to treat vertebral body collapse and degenerative scoliosis, then spinal stability is improved, but adjacent level disease and continued pain occur due to misalignment and stress transfer
Solution Approach 1:
The implant system divides the vertebral body into segments using multiple staples inserted at different locations and orientations. Each staple engages the cortical bone to provide localized stabilization, while the overall system maintains spinal alignment without requiring fusion of adjacent levels. This segmented approach distributes mechanical stress and prevents adjacent level disease.
Solution Approach 2:
The system addresses misalignment in three-dimensional space by inserting staples at various angles and positions within the vertebral body. The coupling device allows adjustment in multiple dimensions to achieve proper sagittal and coronal alignment, correcting deformities without transferring stress to adjacent levels.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If standard decompression procedures are performed to relieve nerve compression, then immediate pain relief is achieved, but underlying misalignment causes recurrence and poor long-term outcomes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary alignment correction by inserting and adjusting staples and the coupling device to establish proper vertebral alignment before final stabilization. This preliminary action addresses the root cause of nerve compression by correcting misalignment, preventing recurrence and ensuring durable symptom relief.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling device provides adjustable feedback mechanisms that allow intraoperative adjustment of staple positions and angles. This feedback system enables real-time optimization of alignment to ensure nerve decompression is maintained and misalignment is fully corrected, improving long-term outcomes.
3Shape
If extensive fusion and reconstruction are performed to address misalignment, then spinal alignment is improved, but device complexity and surgical invasiveness increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The implant system combines multiple functions into a single integrated device: staples provide both stabilization and alignment correction, while the coupling device enables adjustment in multiple planes. This multi-functional approach achieves extensive alignment correction without requiring separate fusion procedures or multiple implant components, reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling device incorporates dynamic adjustment capabilities that allow intraoperative modification of staple positions and angles. This dynamic system enables comprehensive alignment correction to be achieved through adjustable parameters rather than fixed complex structures, simplifying the overall implant design while maintaining alignment precision.
4Ease of operation
If minimal surgical decompression is performed without fusion, then surgical invasiveness is reduced, but deformity progression and reoperation rates increase
Solution Approach 1:
The staple system provides self-stabilizing features where the staples engage the cortical bone and maintain position through their geometric configuration and friction fit. The coupling device allows self-adjustment intraoperatively to achieve proper alignment without requiring additional fusion procedures. This self-service capability provides deformity control equivalent to fusion with minimal surgical invasiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
An orthopedic implant system is disclosed comprising a staple and a coupling device configured to position tines on the staple relative to a bone to secure an orthopedic implant device to the bone. The orthopedic implant system may comprise the orthopedic implant device also having a wedge and a plate having an external surface configuration. The coupling device may couple the wedge, the plate and the staple whereby when the orthopedic implant is secured in a vertebral body, the external surface configuration of the plate alters the relative orientation of a superior endplate surface plane and an inferior endplate surface plane of the vertebral body. In some embodiments, plate tines and staple tines are configured to stabilize the implant device in the bone with a compressive force. In some embodiments, the implant device may be used as an arthrodesis device, an intravertebral device or an intervertebral implant device.