Method and apparatus for implant identification

A method for obtaining information concerning an implant, comprising:

• acquiring positional information from a subject having one or more implants with at least one screw having an RFID-tag affixed thereto, the positional information including the axial position of the screw relative to the implant;
• placing the subject in proximity to an RF reader;
• acquiring current positional information of the RFID-tagged implant;
• and
• comparing the current information of the RFID-tagged implant to the acquired positional information.

An apparatus for obtaining information concerning the status of an implant, comprising:

• one or more surgical implants and one or more corresponding fasteners, at least one of the fasteners being tagged with one or more radio frequency identification tags storing positional information including an axial position of at least one of the fasteners relative to the one or more surgical implants;
• a reader device capable of transmitting a signal to and receiving a signal from the one or more radio frequency identification tags a in a wireless radio frequency field;
• a database connected to the reader device for storing information about the one or more tagged fasteners;
• and
• a data decoder that compares data received by the reader device from the radio frequency identification tags of the fasteners to the database.

An apparatus for obtaining information concerning the position of an orthopedic implant, comprising:

• one or more RFID-tagged screws positioned in one or more implants;
• a calculator for acquiring relative axial positional information of the RFID-tagged screw positioned in the one or more implants;
• a memory for storing positional information of the one or more RFID-tagged implants;
• an RF reader placed in proximity to the one or more tagged implants for acquiring current positional data;
• and
• a data decoder for comparing the current positional information of the RFID-tagged implant to data in the memory.