Other

Pfizer Hospital Products Group, Inc.

Frederick C Ewald

Peter Stanley Walker

Matthew P Poggie

A modulator apparatus for use in the preparation of bone surfaces and the implantation of a modular total knee prosthesis in a patient, which apparatus comprises cutting guides, templates, alignment devices, a distractor and clamping instruments which provide modularity and facilitate bone resection and prosthesis implantation.

Apparatus for knee prosthesis

A modular apparatus for use in the preparation of bone surfaces and the implantation of a modular total knee prosthesis in a patient, which apparatus comprises cutting guides, templates, alignment devices, a distractor and clamping instruments which provide modularity and facilitate bone resection and prosthesis implantation.

A customized human joint prosthesis replicating the primary contours and dimensions of a patient's bone is designed and manufactured utilizing an average anatomical bone shape. The average anatomical bone shape is generated by digitizing and storing in a computer memory the average three dimensional shape of a significant number of actual bone portions corresponding to the bone portion to be replaced by the prosthesis. Thereafter, the scale of the patient's bone is determined by measuring the outside dimensions of the patient's bone in at least one plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of that bone. The average anatomical shape then is adjusted to form a first synthesized shape which conforms to that scale. Subsequently, the actual shape of the bone of the patient is measured along a plurality of longitudinally spaced lines in at least one plane normal to the longitudinal axis of the patient's bone. The first synthesized shape is then adjusted to form a second synthesized shape conforming to the measured shape of the patient's bone. The second synthesized shape is manufactured by CAD/CAM or other suitable means.

Method of designing and manufacturing a human joint prosthesis

A method of designing a prosthesis having convex male and concave female mating portions is provided for a human joint comprising a condylar male portion the surface of which is generated by the piecewise analysis of an anatomical condyle, which can be an average condyle or a selected condyle, or a distortion of an average condyle to fit the observed general dimensions of a specific patient, and the female portion having at least flexion and laxity surfaces, the flexion surfaces of which are generated by plotting the path of articulation of substantial points of contact between said male portion and a corresponding anatomical female component for said joint through the full normal extension-flexion range plus normal rotation and posterior-anterior displacement for that joint, and the laxity surfaces of said female member comprising raised guide-bearing surfaces for resisting dislocation of the condylar portion, the height and angle, and therefore, the resistance to dislocation, of which guide bearing surfaces increases as a function of deviation from the central motion path of said male portion and as a function of the flexion angle, and which at full laxity for any given angle of flexion corresponds substantially to the forces of anatomical ligamentous restraint of said anatomical joint at the limits of laxity.

Method of design of human joint prosthesis

A prosthesis and a surgical procedure (process) therefore are provided having a relatively thin plate fitted to a resected portion of the tibial plateau with the plate fitting uniformly around a major portion of the calcareous bone of the cortical wall. A pin on the under side of the plate aligned substantially with the axis of the intramedullary canal of the tibia fixes the plate against transverse relative motion between the plate and plateau, and blades or keels also on the under side of the plate are aligned maximum density (strength) of the cancellous bone of the plateau and fix the plate against rotation relative to the plateau. The surgical procedure of the invention employs a template to assure approximate positioning, and exact interrelationship between the plate and the fixing means.

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Weston, MA, United States of America

Frederick C Ewald