Drilling a curved hole
OwnerForest C. Barberinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Drilling apparatus for attachment to a rotary motor includes a flexible shaft confined in an elongated tubular sheath. The sheath is formed from a semi-rigid material which is bendable to a desired curvature, at the use site to select the curvature of the drilled hole, and which is rigid enough to retain that curvature in use. A drilling bit is fixed to one end of the flexible shaft, and includes a shank coacting with the distal end of the sheath to rotationally guide the drilling bit. The flexible shaft projects from the sheath at the proximal end so that both components may be secured to a drilling motor which is manipulated to guide the sheath while rotating the cutting bit. The sheath may remain in the drilled hole temporarily as a liner to guide the passage therethrough of a relatively stiff wire or other filamentary member.
Claims16
An attachment for a rotary motor for drilling curved holes in bone tissue comprising
- an elongated flexible drive shaft havaing a proximal end configured to be coupled to a rotary drive motor, and having a rotary drilling tool fixed to the distal end of the drive shaft;
- a semi-rigid tubular sheath, intentionally manually deformable to a selected curvature by the user, enclosing and guiding said flexible drive shaft and adapted to be non-rotatably coupled at one end to said rotary drive motor;
- said drilling tool having an outer diameter slightly larger than that of said sheath;
- and said shaft proximal end being dimensioned to pass through said sheath to enable removal of said drilling tool and shaft from said sheath.
A method for drilling a curved hold in bone tissue comprising the steps
- driving a rotary drilling tool by means of a flexible shaft having said tool fixed to its distal end;
- enclosing said flexible shaft in a tubular guiding sheath intentionally formable by the user to a selected curvature;
- configuring said sheath to have an outer diameter smaller than that of said drilling tool;
- advancing said drilling tool through the material to be drilled by means of said sheath while rotatably driving said drilling tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.