Medical implants with circuits treating periprosthetic joint infection and other sensing
AssigneeGlobus Medical, Inc.
InventorPaden Troxell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A medical implant includes an implant component configured to be implanted in a patient, an electrode array, an energy storage device, and a power management unit. The electrode array includes at least two electrodes spaced apart on the implant component. The energy storage device and power management unit are inside the implant component. The power management unit is operative to control electrical stimulation of the electrode array by current supplied by the energy storage device to be at a level which at least reduces formation of a biofilm on at least part of the implant component while implanted in the patient.
Claims21
A medical implant comprising:
- an implant component configured to be implanted in a patient;
- an electrode array comprising at least two electrodes spaced apart on the implant component;
- an energy storage device inside the implant component;
- and
- a power management unit inside the implant component and operative to control electrical stimulation of the electrode array by current supplied by the energy storage device to be at a level which at least reduces formation of a biofilm on at least part of the implant component while implanted in the patient
- an energy generation circuit operative to generate electrical energy responsive to at least one of:
- inductive energy transfer from an inductive charging device outside the patient;
- radio frequency (RF) energy transfer from a RF charging device outside the patient;
- and energy harvesting from cyclical pressure from patient movement applied to a piezoelectric stack on the medical implant,
- wherein the energy generation circuit is operative to supply the generated electrical energy to charge the energy storage device.
A medical implant comprising:
- an implant component configured to be implanted in a patient;
- an electrode array comprising at least two electrodes spaced apart on the implant component;
- an energy storage device inside the implant component;
- and
- a power management unit inside the implant component and operative to control electrical stimulation of the electrode array by current supplied by the energy storage device to be at a level which at least reduces formation of a biofilm on at least part of the implant component while implanted in the patient,
- wherein the implant component comprises a tibial insert having a pair of tibial trays on an upper side adapted to guide rotational movement of a respective pair of femoral components of the medical implant, and having a tibial component on a lower side adapted to be cemented to a tibia of the patient.
- the first set of the electrodes of the electrode array are spaced apart on a side surface of the tibial insert;
- the second set of at least one of the electrodes comprises a centrally located electrode between the tibial trays;
- and
- the power management unit is operative to control current density through patient tissue between the first set of the electrodes and the centrally located electrode while electrically stimulated by the energy storage device.
A network computing resource comprising:
- a network interface;
- a processor;
- and
- a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to perform operations to
- obtain sensor data from at least one sensor of a medical implant within a patient,
- provide to a display device indications of values of the sensor data, and
- communicate an activation command through the network interface addressed to a controller of the medical implant and configured to initiate electrical stimulation by the controller of an electrode array at a level which at least reduces formation of a biofilm on at least part of an implant component while implanted in the patient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.