Surgical plan options for robotic machining

Abstract

A method of performing surgery on a bone includes providing a robotically controlled bone preparation system and creating at least one hole in the bone with the robotically controlled bone preparation system prior to machining the bone. The bone hole aligns with a hole or a post in a guide for a manual cutting tool. If the robot fails during surgery, or if the surgeon does not wish to complete the procedure with the robot, the guide is attached to the bone after aligning the guide hole with the bone hole. The surgery is completed manually after the guide is attached to the bone, and the robot is not used after the guide is attached to the bone.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to surgical options for navigated and / or robotic bone machining and in particular relates to having the option of completing joint arthroplasty procedures with conventional instruments following the use of navigated and / or robot based applications.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]In a traditional joint arthroplasty procedure, such as a total knee arthroplasty (“TKA”) surgery, diseased bone and / or cartilage of a patient is generally removed and replaced with a prosthetic implant. A surgeon may resect the bone using a hand-held oscillating saw blade which results in a series of planar bone surfaces. Additionally, the surgeon may use a drill, broach or tamp instrument to make cylindrical holes into the bone in order to accommodate fixation features on the implant. The planar bone surfaces and cylindrical bone holes, for example, are generally oriented to interface with flat surfaces and pegs or keels of a prosthetic implant.[000...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a method of using a robotically controlled system to prepare bones for surgery. This system can make accurate, reproducible, and fast bone resections, which would be difficult and time-consuming to do manually. The method also allows for the use of a surgical instrument that matches the features of the robotic system, which can further improve the precision of the surgery. Ultimately, the method allows for a surgeon to complete the surgery on the bone using the robotic system, and then decide to use the surgical instrument for more precise cutting.

Problems solved by technology

This plan may involve, for example, precise non-planar cuts that would be difficult or even impossible for a surgeon to make manually.

While such a robotic plan may provide for potential advantages over traditional manual plans using conventional tools and planar cuts, there is always a possibility that the robot may fail at any point during surgery.

If the robot fails mid-surgery, for example, the surgeon may need to use conventional instrumentation to complete the particular procedure.

However, this may be difficult as bone has already been removed by the robot, generally with non-planar cuts.

While conventional instrumentation is generally used in conjunction with planar cuts and with pre-drilled reference points, making the use of conventional instruments to finish the surgery with non-planar cuts at this point would be difficult.

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