Interactive tendon repair guide system

Inventors

Higgins, Laurence D. • Hauck, Oliver • Wijdicks, Coen • Adams, Christopher

Assignees

Arthrex Inc

Abstract

A system for interactively visualizing different options for tendon repair for a surgeon and for informing the surgeon in a descriptive way of the different options is disclosed. The system may be configured to determine the size of a damaged tendon and propose solutions consisting of the anchor types, number of anchors and a free tendon-to-bone healing area associated with each proposed solution. As such, the system may make a surgeon aware of solutions for which the surgeon was otherwise unaware that are superior in free tendon-to-bone healing area or number of anchors, or both. The system increases the likelihood that a patient will receive the optimum number of anchors and free tendon-to-bone healing area in a tendon repair.

Core Innovation

The invention is directed to an interactive tendon repair guide system that receives input of dimensions of a tear in a tendon. Based on the dimensions, the system generates a tear area size of the tear in the tendon and generates a number of tendon anchors that fit the tear area size. The system also generates a free healing area for the tendon to identify a superior free healing area, wherein the free healing area is an area not covered by the tendon anchors.

To support selection of an improved anchor plan, the system generates output displayed on a graphical user interface to identify a superior number of tendon anchors and the superior free healing area. The outputs are presented to help identify a superior configuration using the relationship between the tear area size, the number of tendon anchors that fit, and the free healing area defined as area not covered by the tendon anchors.

The disclosed system can generate graphical user interface output that includes a graphical representation along with numerical and written descriptions of at least one proposed solution. It can also generate and display additional decision outputs and constraints reflected in the proposed solutions, including anchor types, quantities, and minimum/maximum distance parameters between anchors.

Claims Coverage

The partial document identifies three independent claims: one apparatus claim for a tendon repair system, one method claim for determining components used in tendon repair surgery, and one non-transitory computer-readable device claim. Across these independent claims, there are 5 main inventive functional features, namely: receiving tear dimensions, generating tear area size, generating a number of tendon anchors that fit, generating a free healing area defined as area not covered by anchors, and generating graphical user interface output identifying a superior number of tendon anchors and the superior free healing area.

Each independent claim requires a computation that uses tear dimensions to determine a tear area size, selects a number of tendon anchors that fit that tear area size, identifies a superior free healing area explicitly defined as an area not covered by the tendon anchors, and displays a result on a graphical user interface identifying the superior anchor number and the superior free healing area.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications