Zimmer Gmbh

Sulzer Orthopedics Inc.

Andreas Marchione

Roland Willi

Marcel Hinder

Heinrich Stutz

Thomas Willi

In some examples, a method for at least one of preparation or machining of a femoral head formed on a neck of a femur includes selecting an instrument including probing forceps and a guide element including a centering axis. The guide element is coupled to the probing forceps at first and second coupling points disposed along the centering axis such that the centering axis is disposed in a central plane of the probing forceps independent of an opening angle of the probing forceps. The probing forceps are closed with probing jaws symmetrically contacting the neck of the femur at opposite sides with respect to an axis of the neck of the femur. The guide element self-adjusts with closing of the probing forceps so that the centering axis is automatically aligned in the middle with respect to the two oppositely disposed sides of the neck of the femur.

Instrument for preparing and/or machining a femoral head

The invention relates to an instrument for preparing and/or machining a femoral head () embodied on a femoral neck (). Said instrument comprises tactile forceps () that are provided with two forked levers () and two tactile jaws (), each of which is assigned to one of the forked levers (). The forked levers are interconnected at a fulcrum (). The inventive instrument features a manipulating end and a working end. The tactile jaws are located at the working end of the instrument. A guiding element () is provided which encompasses a centering pin () and is mounted and/or guided at least at two points () spaced apart from each other in the direction of the centering pin () in such a way that the centering pin () always lies on a central plane () of the tactile forceps () regardless of an opening angle of the tactile forceps (), said central plane () containing the fulcrum (). The bearing and/or guiding points () are directly and/or indirectly hinged to the tactile forceps ().

The invention relates to a drilling jig for the determination of the axis of a femur head prosthesis. A guide tube ( ), around whose longitudinal axis ( ) a sensing probe can be rotated, has a rounded head ( ) which is supported in a housing ( ) pivotable in all directions and fixable by first clamping elements ( ), in order to fix its longitudinal axis in a desired angle. The housing ( ) is displaceable in all directions transversely to its longitudinal axis with respect to a base part ( ) which can be anchored to the femur head ( ) and fixable by two clamping elements ( ) in order to define the position of the longitudinal axis ( ) of the guide tube ( ) by rotation of a sensing probe around this longitudinal axis ( ) relative to the cross-section of the femur neck ( ).

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Winterthur, Switzerland

Andreas Marchione