Plug implant holders for replacing damaged hyaline cartilage on bone surfaces

An implant holding device for a surgical implant, which is designed, sized, and suited to create a plug-type implant which can replace a lesion of damaged hyaline cartilage in a mammalian joint without requiring an entire cartilage segment to be removed and replaced, wherein said implant holding device is designed and suited to:

• 1a. receive and securely hold a flexible insert component made of a material which will emulate hyaline cartilage and which will provide an articulating surface with a surface shape that will be aligned, in all directions, with all adjacent surfaces of undisturbed hyaline cartilage, to a level which is sufficient to minimize abrasion of an opposing cartilage surface for a period of at least three years after implantation, under normal usage by a recipient who was selected, by an orthopedic surgeon, to receive that type of plug implant to repair damaged hyaline cartilage;
• 1b. enable said plug-type implant, when complete and holding a flexible insert component, to be forcibly driven into a surgically-prepared vacancy in a bone surface covered by hyaline cartilage, to an exact controllable depth;
• and,
• 1c. provide support against compressive, lateral, and shearing forces, for a segment of flexible material which will rise above an upper surface of said implant holding device;
• and wherein said implant holding device has a bowl-type shape comprising the following components:
• (1) sidewall around its perimeter, wherein:
• (i) said sidewall has at least a portion of its outer surface covered by a porous layer of material which will promote bony tissue ingrowth after surgical implantation;
• (ii) said sidewall has an inner surface, with at least a portion of said inner surface having a grippable configuration, with a combination of protrusions and deficits which are both:
• (1) sufficient to enable a flexible material, after it has set and cured, to establish a firm, stable interface between said flexible material and said inner surface of said sidewall;
• and, (2) large enough to enable a viscous pre-polymeric liquid which has been selected for such use, to enter into (under pressure) and occupy said deficits without creating a quantity of vacancies which would significantly weaken and jeopardize a complete plug implant;
• and,
• (iii) said sidewall also has an internal layer or component which will prevent a viscous liquid from reaching said porous material on said outer surface of said sidewall, while said liquid is being injected under pressure into said implant holding device;
• and,
• (2) a base, having a portion of its outer surface covered by a porous material which will promote bony tissue ingrowth after surgical implantation, and having at least one vent designed to enable a gas or liquid to escape through said vent while a flexible insert component is being added to said implant holding device.