The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 30, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 16, 2002
Paul Re, Lexington, MA (US);
Mark A. Johanson, Littleton, MA (US);
Peter F. Marshall, Lancaster, MA (US);
Scandius Biomedical, Inc., Littleton, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for reconstructing a ligament using a graft ligament support block which comprises a body, and a graft hole and a transverse fixation pin hole extending through the body, with both the graft hole and the fixation pin hole preferably extending substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the body. A graft ligament is looped through the graft hole, and the support block is advanced into the bone tunnel, with the two free ends of the looped graft ligament extending back out the bone tunnel. Next, a transverse tunnel is formed in the host bone, with the transverse tunnel being aligned with the fixation pin hole. Then the support block is secured in place by pinning the support block within the tunnel, i.e., by advancing a fixation pin along the transverse tunnel in the host bone and into the fixation pin hole in the support block.