Joint Development, LLC

Eric M Dacus

Dermott J McHugh

Chris A Weaber

Erin E Hofmann

Andrea Cragen

James Thomas Grutta

Thomas Collier

The process for producing an orthopedic implant having an integrated silicon nitride surface layer includes steps for positioning the orthopedic implant inside a vacuum chamber, mixing nitrogen gas and vaporized silicon atoms in the vacuum chamber, emitting a relatively high energy beam into the mixture of nitrogen gas and vaporized silicon atoms in the vacuum chamber to cause a gas-phase reaction between the nitrogen gas and the vaporized silicon atoms to form reacted precipitate silicon nitride molecules, and driving the precipitate silicon nitride molecules with the same beam into an outer surface of the orthopedic implant at a relatively high energy such that the precipitate silicon nitride molecules implant therein and form at least a part of the molecular structure of the outer surface of the orthopedic implant, thereby forming the integrated silicon nitride surface layer.

Processes for producing orthopedic implants having a subsurface level silicon nitride layer applied via bombardment

The tibial insert includes a base having a coupling for attachment to a tibial baseplate, and an upwardly presented articular surface formed from the base, which includes a concave troughed geometry having a progressively larger medial-to-lateral frontal cross-section opening anteriorly to posteriorly along a length of the tibial insert.

Tibial insert with variable articular surface

The dual mobility acetabular component includes an acetabular cup and a liner that engage one another in a relatively static relationship by way of a Morse taper. The acetabular cup and the liner may be manufactured from a metal material (e.g., titanium) that decreases the energy differential therebetween, to limit or eliminate the galvanic cell phenomenon that forms between adjacent surfaces thereof as a result of body fluid therein that remains captured in small gaps or spaces due to capillarity. As such, the dual mobility acetabular component may experience reduced fretting compared to conventional hip joints known in the art.

Dual mobility acetabular component

Femoral component

Knee baseplate

Knee insert

Posterior stabilized femur

Posterior stabilized insert

The orthopedic implant locking system may include an eccentric tibial stem having an engagement rod selectively threadingly engageable with a tibial baseplate, a lock housing securable in rotatable and substantial vertical constrained relation relative to the tibial stem, and an extension lock selectively threadingly engageable with the lock housing and including an inner passage keyed to selectively slidably engage the engagement rod in flush engagement therewith. The extension lock may extend or contract in response to rotational movement of the lock housing simultaneously while the extension lock remains in substantial non-rotatable relation relative to the tibial stem. Engagement of the extension lock with the tibial baseplate may generally vertically and rotationally selectively lock the tibial baseplate with the tibial stem and, based on the threaded spaced relation of the tibial baseplate relative to the tibial stem, linearly and eccentrically axially misalign the tibial stem relative to the tibial baseplate.

Locking system

Porous baseplate

The femoral stem prosthesis includes a prosthesis body having a neck, stem, and porous coating receiving area. A portion of a transition between the porous coating receiving area and the stem is defined by a recess where the porous coating receiving area inwardly extends by a depth relative to the stem while the porous coating receiving area is approximately flush with the stem about a remainder of the transition between the porous coating receiving area and the stem. A porous coating overlying the porous coating receiving area has a thickness approximately equal to the depth of the recess to define a smooth transition between the porous coating and the stem along the portion of the transition by the at least one recess and a collar outwardly extending relative to the stem by approximately the thickness along the remainder of the transition between the porous coating receiving area and the stem.

Femoral stem with partially recessed porous coating

Femur stem with medially recessed porous coating

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Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America

Eric M Dacus