Rolling contact prosthetic knee joint

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for the rolling contact joint that is particularly useful as a prosthetic joint such as a knee joint. The basic joint may take a variety of forms depending upon the particular situation, but in essence, includes at least two bodies that have surface portions in contact, with the bodies being movable relative to one another and constrained in this movement by the nature of the surfaces in contact and flexible straps positioned about and also in contact with the bodies. Since the shape of the bodies and the positioning of the flexible straps determines the particular type motion, various possible combinations have been described. A particular embodiment of a rolling contact joint is described for use as a prosthetic knee joint. When so utilized, the joint is implanted as a replacement for the natural knee joint, and includes a femoral section and a tibial section with the femoral section having a curved surface that engages and rolls upon a surface of the tibial section with the sections being constrained to rolling motion by a plurality of straps fastened to the sections and extending partially therearound.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.