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US 12,274,631 B2Granted
Soft tissue balancing in robotic knee surgery
AssigneeExactech, Inc.
InventorPierre Couture
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method may be used to evaluate soft tissue. A knee arthroplasty soft tissue evaluation may use an adjustable spacer, such as varying sized physical spacers or an inflatable bladder, along with a sensor to measure force, pressure, gap distance, or the like during a range of motion test. A method may include maintaining an equal pressure or gap distance for a medial component and a lateral component of an adjustable spacer during a range of motion test. Information, including, for example a maximum or minimum gap distance or pressure may be determined during the range of motion test. The determined information may be output for display or used to update a surgical plan.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- generating a preoperative plan for a knee arthroplasty;
- providing a surgical system including:
- a computer system, and
- an adjustable spacer having one or more integral pumps;
- performing a preparation of a first bone of a patient's knee joint to produce a resected surface of the first bone;
- inserting the adjustable spacer between the resected surface of the first bone and a surface of a second bone of the patient's knee joint;
- inflating a first adjustable component of the adjustable spacer using the one or more integral pumps to separate the first bone and the second bone on a medial side of the patient's knee joint;
- inflating a second adjustable component of the adjustable spacer using the one or more integral pumps to separate the first bone and the second bone on a lateral side of the patient's knee joint, the second adjustable component independently adjustable from the first adjustable component;
- maintaining an equal gap distance between a medial gap of the knee caused by the first adjustable component and a lateral gap of the knee caused by the second adjustable component by increasing or decreasing pressure in the first adjustable component or the second adjustable component with the one or more integral pumps;
- measuring force on the adjustable spacer throughout a range of motion test of the knee joint using a force sensor device, with the adjustable spacer in place and the equal gap distance maintained;
- tracking a position of bones of the knee joint utilizing an optical tracking system operatively coupled to the surgical system throughout the range of motion test;
- determining a maximum force measured by the force sensor device during the range of motion test;
- and
- outputting the maximum force for display on a user interface of the computer system.
11 more elements
A method, comprising:
- generating a preoperative plan for a knee arthroplasty;
- providing a surgical system including:
- a computer system, and
- an adjustable spacer having one or more integral pumps;
- performing a preparation of a first bone of a patient's knee joint to produce a resected surface of the first bone;
- inserting the adjustable spacer between the resected surface of the first bone and a surface of a second bone of the patient's knee joint;
- inflating a first adjustable component of the adjustable spacer using the one or more integral pumps to separate the first bone and the second bone on a medial side of the patient's knee joint;
- inflating a second adjustable component of the adjustable spacer using the one or more integral pumps to separate the first bone and the second bone on a lateral side of the patient's knee joint, the second adjustable component independently adjustable from the first adjustable component;
- maintaining an equal pressure between a medial pressure caused by the first adjustable component and a lateral pressure knee caused by the second adjustable component by increasing or decreasing gap distance in the first adjustable component or the second adjustable component with the one or more integral pumps;
- measuring force on the adjustable spacer throughout a range of motion test of the knee joint using a force sensor device, with the adjustable spacer in place and the equal gap distance maintained;
- measuring a medial gap distance and a lateral gap distance utilizing an optical tracking system operatively coupled to the surgical system throughout the range of motion test;
- determining a maximum gap distance during the range of motion test;
- and
- outputting the maximum gap distance for display on a user interface of the computer system.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.