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.
Claims11
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 surgical system comprising:
- a implant configured to positioned within a patient;
- a computer system configured to communicate with the implant;
- 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.