Soft tissue fixation system
AssigneeDePuy Synthes Products, Inc.
InventorsPatrick Burki, Nicolas Bouduban, Dieter Schmidli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A soft tissue fixation assembly includes a plurality of deformable bone anchors and a suture that is configured to fixedly attach to each of the bone anchors. One or more of the bone anchors can be inserted into a bone, and one or more of the bone anchors can be inserted through soft tissue and into the bone. The suture can be inserted through the bone anchors, and energy can be applied to the anchors, thereby causing a deformable material of the bone anchors to deform, thereby capturing the strand of suture in the bone anchor. The strand of suture can be placed in tension, and can extend over the soft tissue so as to retain the soft tissue in contact with the bone.
Claims34
A bone anchor comprising:
- a bone anchor body defining a proximal end, a distal end that is spaced from the proximal end along a longitudinal axis, and a perimeter that extends between the proximal end and the distal end, the bone anchor body defining at least one channel that extends into the perimeter, the channel configured to receive a strand of suture;
- wherein at least a portion of the bone anchor body comprises a deformation material that is responsive to an applied energy so as to deform at least a portion of the channel and capture the strand of suture therein with respect to movement relative to the bone anchor body.
A soft tissue fixation system comprising:
- first and second bone anchors each defining a proximal end, distal end that is spaced from the proximal end along a longitudinal axis, and an outer perimeter that extends between the proximal end and the distal end, each of the first and second bone anchors defining respective first and second channels that extend into the perimeter;
- and
- a strand of suture sized to be received in at least one of the first and second channels of each of the first and second bone anchors;
- wherein at least a portion of the first and second channels of each of the first and second bone anchors is defined by deformation material that is responsive to an applied energy so as to deform and close the respective at least one of the first and second channels as to capture the strand of suture therein with respect to movement relative to the respective first and second bone anchors.
A method of anchoring suture to bone, the method comprising the steps of:
- inserting a strand of suture into a channel of a bone anchor, the bone anchor including a deformation material that defines at least a portion of the channel,
- driving the bone anchor into bone;
- and
- applying energy to the bone anchor so as to cause the deformation material to deform, thereby closing the portion of the channel and capturing the strand of suture therein with respect to movement relative to the bone anchor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.