Lock interaction for intramedullary nail aiming arm

An aiming device, comprising:

• a connector portion including a connecting hole extending therethrough, the connecting hole being sized, shaped and configured to slidably receive a distal portion of an insertion handle of an intramedullary nail therethrough so that the aiming device is releasably coupleable with the insertion handle;
• an aiming block including a plurality of openings extending therethrough, each of the plurality of openings extending therethrough along a central axis which, when the aiming block in a desired position relative to the insertion handle, aligns with a corresponding hole of the intramedullary nail;
• a handle portion extending between the connector portion and the aiming block, the handle portion configured to be gripped via a user;
• and
• a locking mechanism including a pin housed within the handle portion and an actuator configured to move the pin between a locked configuration, in which a tip of the pin extends into the connecting hole, and an unlocked configuration, in which the tip does not extend into the connecting hole.

A method for treatment of bones, comprising:

• inserting an intramedullary nail through a medullary canal of a bone using an insertion handle coupled to an end thereof;
• releasably locking an aiming arm to a distal portion of the insertion handle in a first desired orientation relative thereto in which the distal portion is received within a connector opening of the aiming arm and one of a plurality of openings of the aiming arm is aligned with a first hole of the intramedullary nail, the aiming arm locked in the first desired orientation relative to the insertion handle via a locking mechanism of the aiming arm including a pin extending into the connector opening to engage a first one of a plurality of recesses along an exterior surface of the distal portion of the insertion handle received within the connector opening in a locked configuration;
• inserting a first fixation element through the one of the plurality of openings and the first hole of the intramedullary nail;
• and
• releasing the aiming arm from the first desired orientation by moving an actuator from a first position to a second position, which correspondingly moves the pin from the locked configuration toward an unlocked configuration, in which the pin is removed from the first one of the plurality of recesses of the insertion handle and no longer extends into the connector opening so that the aiming arm is freely movable relative to the insertion handle.