Nail hole guiding system
AssigneeBiosense Webster (Israel) Ltd.
InventorMeir Bar-Tal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A jig for placing a screw to stabilize a femoral nail comprises a shell, a drill guide assembly movably mounted on the shell, and having a plurality of radiopaque markers affixed thereon, a magnetic field generator, and a plurality of magnetic location sensors responsive to magnetic fields produced by the magnetic field generator. A position processor is operative to compute positional information of the magnetic location sensors based on signals communicated thereto. The positional information is placed in registration with an anatomical image so that the drill guide assembly can be aligned with a transverse bore in the femoral nail.
Claims18
An apparatus, comprising:
- a shell, conformable to a limb of a patient;
- a drill guide assembly moveably mounted on the shell, and having a plurality of radiopaque markers affixed thereon;
- a magnetic field generator;
- a plurality of magnetic location sensors responsive to magnetic fields produced by the magnetic field generator and linked to a position processor that is operative to compute positional information of the magnetic location sensors;
- and
- a first flange and a second flange attached to the shell;
- and
- rails extending between the first flange and the second flange, wherein the drill guide assembly is mounted on the rails and moveable thereon,
- wherein the drill guide assembly comprises parallel struts that are transverse to the rails, wherein the rails pass through transverse bores in the struts, wherein the struts support a plate that is connected with a ball joint having drill guide tunneled therethrough,
- wherein the ball joint is adapted to allow free rotation of the drill guide but does not allow translation, wherein the ball joint has a sensor thereon adapted to indicate orientation of the drill guide to an operator.
A method, comprising:
- providing a shell, conformable to a limb of a patient, a drill guide assembly moveably mounted on the shell, and having a plurality of radiopaque markers affixed thereon;
- generating magnetic fields;
- and
- sensing the magnetic fields using a plurality of magnetic location sensors;
- transmitting signals from the magnetic location sensors to a position processor;
- and responsively to the signals computing with the position processor positional information of the magnetic location sensors,
- wherein the shell comprises:
- a first flange and a second flange attached thereto;
- and
- rails extending between the first flange and the second flange, wherein the drill guide assembly is mounted on the rails, the method further comprising translating the drill guide assembly on the rails,
- wherein the drill guide assembly comprises parallel struts that are transverse to the rails, wherein the rails pass through transverse bores in the struts, wherein the struts support a plate that is connected with a ball joint having drill guide tunneled therethrough,
- wherein the ball joint is adapted to allow free rotation of the drill guide but does not allow translation, wherein the ball joint has a sensor thereon adapted to indicate orientation of the drill guide to an operator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.