Patent Grant
11744757
Geriatrics are highly prone to hip abnormalities and nearly a million hip surgeries are performed each year, as per the National Institute of Health (NIH). The United Nations has estimated that the number of people aged over 60 years would swell up to 2.1 billion by 2050, more than doubling from 962 million as of 2017. About 600,000 hip implant procedures are conducted each year worldwide among individuals aged between 40 and 50 years. Patient positioners play an important role in healthcare from the prevention of pressure ulcers to assisting with surgeries and recovery. They facilitate surgery and prevent injury by ensuring patients do not move during procedures. The stability of the patient is critical during hip surgery and the positioners help prevent the patient movement making it easier for the surgeon.
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
Disclosed herein are various embodiments related to a leg positioner apparatus with applications in total hip arthroplasty procedures. The leg positioner is configured to attach to a standard operating table and helps in positioning the operative leg for femoral preparation. The leg positioner makes the surgery easier, more efficient, and helps to maintain sterility while allowing one assistant to position the leg for femoral preparation.
The direct anterior approach for total hip arthroplasty is a procedure that promotes accurate surgery with fast patient recovery. The direct anterior approach for total hip arthroplasty is an increasingly popular surgical technique. The accuracy and fast patient recovery continues to attract more surgeons. Many surgeons wish to perform this surgery on a standard table due to its familiarity, availability, and to accurately access hip stability and leg length equality. Positioning the operative leg for femoral preparation can be challenging, especially when performed on a standard operating table. This procedure often requires the use of an extra assistant or methods that jeopardize sterility of the procedure.
Known techniques for positioning an operative leg during surgery require an additional assistant to hold the operative leg. Additional surgical assistants are usually not available and can be an expensive addition to the process. Another known technique includes having a surgical assistant hold the operative between their legs, which can jeopardize sterility of the procedure. Losing sterility can increase the risk of wound complications and surgical site infection.
Known leg positioners for direct anterior approach total hip arthroplasty comprise components of traction tables that secure the operative leg in a traction boot. This requires the purchase of new beds. Further, the use of the known leg positioners limits the assessment of hip stability and leg length discrepancy due to the leg being secured in a boot. There are no known leg positioners that can be attached to a standard operating table. The leg positioner of the present disclosure allows surgeons the ability to operate on a standard table. Without the use of the leg positioner of the present disclosure, the surgery can be performed on commercially available traction tables which carry a high capital cost and require larger operating rooms for hospitals. Further, the traction tables limit the assessment of leg length and hip stability for the surgeon.
A unique advantage of the leg positioner of the present disclosure over known techniques and devices is that the disclosed leg positioner makes surgery easier and efficient for the surgeons by maintaining the sterility of the hip arthroplasty procedure and also allowing the surgery to be performed on a standard operating table. Sterility is very important for minimizing the risk of wound complications and surgical site infection. The surgeons are also able to accurately test the hip stability and evaluate for leg length discrepancy on a standard operating table. This also results in cost savings due to elimination of the need for an extra surgical assistant. There is no similar device available commercially and the traction tables/boots available require purchase of new beds since they cannot be attached to the standard operating table. Further due to limited movement of leg in a boot prevents an accurate diagnosis of the situation by the surgeon.
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In some examples, the post assembly 103 can comprise a post bracket 109 and a leg resistance surface designed to support and minimize movement of a limb during surgery. In some embodiments, leg resistance surface comprises a post bracket 109. In other examples, the leg resistance surface comprises a padding 112 that is affixed to a first post bracket member 115 of the post bracket 109. In
The post bracket 109 can comprise an angled bracket (e.g., I-shaped bracket, corner bracket, etc.) having the first post bracket member 115 positioned at an angle relative to the second post bracket member 118. For example, the first post bracket member 115 can be positioned at a substantially right angle relative to the second post bracket member 118 such that the first post bracket member 115 extends away from and is substantially perpendicular to the second post bracket member 118. Although the first post bracket member 115 is discussed and illustrated in
The second post bracket member 118 comprises a receiving slot 121 extending along a horizontal axis of the second post bracket member 118 and between a first side of the second post bracket member 118 and a second side of the second post bracket member 118. The receiving slot 121 is sized and shaped for receiving an end of the first attachment bracket member 124 of the attachment bracket 106.
According to various embodiments, the receiving slot 121 is sized to allow the first attachment bracket member 124 to engage with and extend through the receiving slot 121 such that the post assembly 103 can slide along a first axis relative to a length of the first attachment bracket member 124 as the first attachment bracket member 124 engages with and extends through the receiving slot 121 of the second post bracket member 118. Being able to adjust the position of the post assembly 103 along the axis relative to the length of the first attachment bracket member 124 provides adaptability for different types of patients, leg sizes, leg lengths, etc.
According to various embodiments, the first attachment bracket member 124 can engage with and enter the receiving slot 121 at either the first side of the second post bracket member 118 or the second side of the second post bracket member 118 to account for different arrangements of the leg positioner apparatus 100 required to accommodate a left leg arrangement versus a right leg arrangement.
According to various embodiments, the second post bracket member 118 comprises an aperture 127 (
In some examples, the post assembly 103 is mounted to the attachment bracket 106 in a permanent fixed position. For example, the post assembly 103 can be mounted to the attachment bracket 106 via a solder, and/or other type of means to permanently mount the post assembly 103 to the angled attachment bracket 106. In another example, the post assembly 103 can be mounted to the attachment bracket 106 via an adhesive, or other type of fastening means as can be appreciated.
The attachment bracket 106 can include a bracket that that can be mounted to an operating table. The attachment bracket 106 can include an angled bracket, corner bracket, c-clamp bracket, or other type of bracket as can be appreciated. The attachment bracket 106 can include a first attachment bracket member 124 and a second attachment bracket member 133. The first attachment bracket member 124 can be positioned at an angle relative to a second attachment bracket member 133. According to various embodiments, the post assembly 103 can be coupled to the attachment bracket 106 such that the first post bracket member 115 extends away from the first attachment bracket member 124 in a first direction and the second attachment bracket member 133 extends away from the first attachment bracket member 124 in a second direction that directly or indirectly opposes the first direction.
According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the second attachment bracket member 133 can be sized and shaped to allow attachment to a standard operating table. As shown in
The attachment bracket 106 and the post bracket 109 can metal, plastic, or other type of material as can be appreciated. In addition, the components of the leg positioner apparatus 100 (e.g., the attachment bracket 106, the post bracket 109, padding 112, etc.) are not limited to the shapes, sizes, and dimensions shown in the drawings and can comprise any shape, size, and/or dimension as can be appreciated to allow a leg to be positioned and secured during a surgical procedure.
Moving on to
Turning now to
The first attachment bracket member 124 can engage with and extend through the receiving slot 121 such that the post assembly 103 is slidably coupled to the attachment bracket 106 to provide adjustment of a position of the post assembly 103 along an axis relative to the length of the first attachment bracket member 124. When the suitable position of the post assembly 103 along the length of the first attachment bracket member 124 is determined, the fastener 130 can engage with and through the aperture 127 and abut with the first attachment bracket member 124 to fix the position of post assembly 103 to the first attachment bracket member 124.
Referring next to
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Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.
The term “substantially” is meant to permit deviations from the descriptive term that don't negatively impact the intended purpose. Descriptive terms are implicitly understood to be modified by the word substantially, even if the term is not explicitly modified by the word substantially.
It should be noted that ratios, concentrations, amounts, and other numerical data may be expressed herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such a range format is used for convenience and brevity, and thus, should be interpreted in a flexible manner to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. To illustrate, a concentration range of “about 0.1% to about 5%” should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited concentration of about 0.1 wt % to about 5 wt %, but also include individual concentrations (e.g., 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%) and the sub-ranges (e.g., 0.5%, 1.1%, 2.2%, 3.3%, and 4.4%) within the indicated range. The term “about” can include traditional rounding according to significant figures of numerical values. In addition, the phrase “about ‘x’ to ‘y’” includes “about ‘x’ to about ‘y’”.
It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/712,640 filed Jul. 31, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4730609 | McConnell | Mar 1988 | A |
| 5063918 | Guhl | Nov 1991 | A |
| 5281001 | Bergsten | Jan 1994 | A |
| 5390383 | Carn | Feb 1995 | A |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20200038276 A1 | Feb 2020 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62712640 | Jul 2018 | US |
