Surgical bicompartmental tensiometer for revision knee surgery
AssigneeSulzer Orthopedics Inc.
InventorRonald C. Todd
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bicompartmental tensiometer for use in prosthetic knee surgery, and in particular for use in revision knee surgery. The tensiometer comprises two parallel, independently operable jaws which are inserted between resected surfaces on the distal femur and the proximal tibia. The jaws are opened manually by the surgeon until the proper tension is placed on the collateral ligaments. Each of the jaws comprises two paddles which remain parallel to each other as they are opened. Moreover, the two jaws remain parallel to each other, or in the same angular orientation, when adjusted to be placed adjacent the condyles. Each jaw is held open by a pawl which engages a rack.
Claims13
A surgical apparatus for spreading a distal end of a femur away from a proximal end of a tibia at a knee joint of a patient thereby placing adjacent collateral ligaments in tension, said apparatus comprising
- means for spreading a medial side of said knee,
- means for spreading a lateral side of said knee, and
- a pair of parallel rods connecting said means for spreading said medial side and said means for spreading said lateral side for holding said means for spreading in selectable non-rotatable spaced relation with respect to each other, each rod slidingly received in at least one of said means for spreading.
A surgical apparatus for spreading a distal end of a femur away from a proximal end of a tibia at a knee joint of a patient thereby placing adjacent collateral ligaments in tension, said apparatus comprising
- means for spreading a medial side of said knee,
- said means for spreading said medial side of said knee having
- a medial upper paddle, and
- a medial lower paddle, and
- means for adjusting the position of said medial paddles relative to each other while permitting only parallel motion of said paddles, means for spreading a lateral side of said knee,
- said means for spreading said lateral side of said knee having
- a lateral upper paddle, and
- a lateral lower paddle, and
- means for adjusting the position of said lateral paddles relative to each other while permitting only parallel motion of said paddles, and
- means for non-rotatably translating in the medial-lateral direction said means for spreading said medial side of said knee away from or towards said means for spreading said lateral side of said knee.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.