Patent Application
20050090826
With medical implants which are to be fastened to bone using a bone screw, it is often necessary to prevent backward migration of the screw from its assigned positon, so that it cannot pose a danger to adjacent organs. It is not enough, as is known in the prior art, to secure the screws against turning in the direction of unscrewing, because, if their thread turns are engaged loosely in the bone substance, there is a danger of their moving back axially without any appreciable turning. It is therefore known to secure the screws by providing the implant with covering arrangements which, after the screw has been screwed in, are placed over the screw head in order to prohibit its backward movement Such covering arrangements, however, take up additional space, which can sometimes be undesirable.
The invention therefore aims to provide a means of securing bone screws without the need to cover the screw head.
The solution according to the invention lies in the features of the claims. Accordingly, the invention provides that the bone screw is guided through a bore of the implant, which bore is provided with a thread matching the thread of the screw, that the screw shank between the screw head and the thread has an unthreaded portion whose length is at least as great as the length of the threaded bores, and that the implant and the screw are provided with means which inhibit reverse turning of the screw. When the screw is located in its assigned position, the unthreaded portion of the screw shank lies in the threaded bore of the implant. The threads of the bore and of the screw do not engage in one another in this state. The securing of the screw against backward movement is achieved by the fact that the screw thread cannot pass axially through the threaded bore. The mutually adjoining, final turns of the bore thread and of the screw thread form axial abutments which prevent backward movement of the screw. Escape of the screw from the implant would then only be possible if the screw thread were able to move by turning into the thread of the bore. This, however, is prevented by the barrier against backward turning.
The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings which depicts an advantageous illustrative embodiment. In the drawings:
An endoprosthesis is shown, with a plate 1 on the edge of which a flange 2 is arranged, said flange having two bores 3 which are intended to receive bone screws 4, which in turn are intended to fasten the flange 2 on the surface of a bone. For anchoring in the bone, the bone screws have a thread 5 which, in the portion near the tip of the screw seen on the right in
The associated bore 3 can (but does not need to) have a seat 11 for completely or partially receiving the screw head 6, said seat 11 forming a face 12 for supporting the rear face 8 of the screw head 6. The bore portion between the face 12 and the rear face 13 of the flange 2 of the bore comprises a thread 14 which matches the thread 5 of the screw 4. The length of the threaded portion on the screw between the faces 12 and 14 is at least as great as the axial length of the unthreaded portion 10 of the screw and not much longer. The diameter of the unthreaded portion 10 of the screws is not greater than the free core cross section in the bore 3. Accordingly, after the screw 4 has been fully screwed in, the screw thread 5 is free from the thread 14 of the bore 3. The screw can thus be turned freely, as is necessary in order to draw the flange 2 fully onto the surface of the bone by tightening the screw in the bone.
The rear end 9 of the screw thread 5 and the adjoining end of the thread 14 in the bore 3 form abutments which prohibit an axial, non-rotational backward movement of the screw 4 onto the flange 2 of the implant. To ensure that backward turning is also prevented, the screw and the implant are provided with an arrangement preventing turning. This arrangement can be of any very simple kind known generally in the prior art for preventing backward turning of screws. For example, the screw head can be provided with serrations 15 on its shank-side face in order to interact with corresponding members of the flange 2 and thereby prevent backward turning. In the present example, the members preventing backward turning in
The thread 14 in the bore 3 does not have to be particularly long. On the contrary, it can be extremely short. There does not even have to be a complete thread turn. It is enough, for example, to provide the suggestion of a thread turn in the form of a projection on one side of the bore, said projection being just large enough to prevent the axial passage of the threaded part of the screw.
