Abstract: A post-operative pliable protector device for the hallux or big toe of a patient has a cushion pad with at least a portion thereof adapted to encircle the toe and formed with separable fastener (of the type marketed by Velcro, USA, Manchester, N.H.) having its loop-type fabric component fastened to and covering the backside of the pad and a strip of its hook-type fabric component fastened onto the front side of the pad across one end of the pad portion. A stiffening stay strip member may be fastened transversely across the backside of the pad portion at a location thereon generally medially between its opposite ends. The cushion pad may also have a rearwardly extending portion for encircling and fastening around the forefoot as by a similar hook/loop type separable fastener.

Abstract: A pair of screens in the barrel of a bone cement syringe improves the strength of the bone cement by breaking large bubbles into many small bubbles.

Abstract: A guide for a cutting device used to make a surgical cut in a first bone in desired spatial relationship with a pre-existing cut in a second bone is disclosed to include a means for contacting the pre-existing cut to establish a reference for the desired spatial relationship and a body member engaging the means for contacting and including a guide surface for establishing the desired spatial relationship and guiding a surgical cutting tool to cut the first bone in a plane which is not normally inclined with respect to the long axis of the first bone.

Abstract: Instrument kit and method for performing posterior lumbar interbody fusion. The surgical procedure is done through the spinal canal rather than outside the spinal canal as has been done previously. The posterior lumbar interbody fusion procedure is faster, simpler, less bloody and less expensive than prior art vertebrae fusion procedures. The surgical procedure of this invention is carried out using a novel instrument kit comprising first and second shafts, first and second chisels, a retaining ring with set screw, an extraction hammer, a tamper, and a hook.

Abstract: A bone staple includes a body and a pair of angled arms oppositely threaded into opposite ends of the body. The body has at least one generally flat periphery striking surface and a corresponding relatively sharp outward protrusion at an opposite side of the body from the striking surface. According to the disclosed method, the bone staple is implanted by driving the staple partly into two bone members and then rotating the body to threadably adjust the positions of the arms and thereby exert a force between the bone members. The staple is next driven further by striking the striking surface until the protrusion embeds beneath a bone surface to prevent rotation of the body. A driver tool useful for implanting the staple has a clamping head which receives the staple body and rigidly clamps the angled arms.

Abstract: An improved orthopedic implant device comprising an elongate shaft and an elongate sleeve engaged about and shiftable longitudinally of the shaft a plurality of elongate struts spaced circumferentially about the sleeve and shaft and shiftable between unactuated positions where they are parallel with the sleeve and actuated positions where they extend radially outward from the sleeve, pivot means connecting one end of the shafts with the sleeve, lever arms on the shafts projecting into the sleeve from the pivot means therefor and cam means between the lever arms and the shaft whereby the lever arms are pivoted between the unactuated and actuated positions upon axial shifting of the shaft relative to the sleeve.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a surgical apparatus for providing an accurately placed recess in a distal femoral surface for the intercondylar stabilizing housing of a posterior-stabilized knee implant prosthesis which apparatus comprises (a) a template having (1) a bottom surface which is adapted to be placed in an aligning relationship with the flat surface of a distal femur which has been partially shaped to receive the femoral component of a posterior-stabilized knee implant prosthesis and (2) a U-shaped slot passing through the template where the slot is of substantially the same size and shape as the outer periphery of the intercondylar stabilizing housing present on the femoral component to be implanted and (b) a drilling means, preferably in the form of an end-mill cutter, having a stop means thereon and the drilling means closely engages the sides of the U-shaped slot in the template so that the drilling means can be passed through the U-shaped slot until the stop means contacts a surface of the g

Abstract: A guide device for the placement of a bone screws or pin in the orthopedic treatment of bone fractures is disclosed. The guide device is constructed of a body having one or more tunnels for guiding therethrough an orthopedic pin for placement in the orthopedic treatment of a bone fracture. The body includes at least one frangible portion for separating the body from about the pin such that the body is removable while the pin remains in secured place within the bone.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for preparing the bone at a joint for the implant of a component part of a prosthetic device include a contouring guide placed on the bone at a predetermined site and having a guide rail for delineating a path of travel to which a contouring cutter is confined while translated along the contouring guide for removing bone along a surface of predetermined area and contour to establish an accurately defined seating area for the component part with minimal intrusion into the joint.

Abstract: A hand splint with mechanism for securing it to a patient's forearm, and including a palmar hand support and plural articulated finger supports to support and immobilize each finger and the thumb independently of each other. A connection is provided between the portion of the hand splint which secures the forearm and the portion which supports the hand, to allow a variable rotation at the wrist joint which can be locked to maintain the position. Similar connections permit a locked degree of variable flexion or extension for each individual finger and thumb. Each finger support includes a plurality of finger guides assembled in sequence with the most proximal being rigidly secured to the hand support. The finger guides include articulating connections, supports for the finger or thumb, and securing bands. Individual articulated connections allow variable degrees of movement which can then be locked into desired position.

Abstract: A bone cutting device for precision elbow surface replacement arthroplasty and osteotomy is described. A humeral clamping device is provided with an outrigger to hold the ulna in preselected and rigid relation to the humerus. A bond cutting tool such as a burr is inserted into a selected guide sleeve mounted for oscillatory arcuate movement on the medial side of the clamping device, so as to precisely prepare the humerus. The humeral guide sleeve is removed and replaced with a slightly longer second sleeve which provides the precise spacing required to prepare the ulna in similar manner. A planar radial cutting guide may be mounted on the lateral side of the clamping device, to guide a planar oscillating saw used to prepare the proximal end of the radius.

Abstract: Cutting guide for a bone saw used to assure accurate bone cuts in implantation of prostheses and osteotomies. A cutting guide has a main body having guide elements that include a pair of guide surfaces that engage opposite sides of a saw blade. The guide surfaces guide the blade in a predetermined plane during the cutting process. In each pair of guide surfaces, the surfaces are spaced from one another along the plane a sufficient distance to enable the saw blade to pivot out of said plane away from engagement with at least one of the guide surfaces through an angle of at least 15.degree.. The cutting guide also includes means for attaching the guide to a bone surface to orient the guide elements with respect to the bone.

Abstract: An acetabular cup inserting instrument comprises a first handle and a second handle extending therefrom. The second handle is selectively rotatable about the first handle and selectively lockable in a desired position with respect to the first handle.

Abstract: A fastener for anchoring in a bore in a bone has a screw extending along an axis and having a substantially cylindrical outer surface formed with a helical screwthread. The screw has at the screwthread a thread diameter and between the turns of the thread at the surface a root diameter smaller than the thread diameter. An anchor sleeve normally fitted in the bore and of an outside diameter corresponding generally to the diameter of the bore has an outer end formed with a laterally projecting rim normally lying against the bone around the bore, an outer end portion of an inside diameter greater than the root diameter but smaller than the thread diameter, and an inner end portion of an inside diameter smaller than the root diameter. Thus when the screw is threaded into the sleeve its thread cuts into the outer portion without substantially deforming and spreading same and into the inner portion with substantial outward deformation and spreading of same.

Abstract: A method and instrument for skeletal referenced isometric positioning and tensioning of a ligament graft, particularly during knee surgery involving the anterior cruciate and the posterior cruciate ligaments. The graft is extended from one fixation site and attached to a sled slidably carried by a frame which is skeletally mounted to the other fixation site. A thumb nut and lead screw assembly on the skeletally fixed frame is operative to compress a spring in the sled and move the sled in a direction effective to tension the graft. Isometry is achieved when the relative positions of the frame and sled indicate constant graft tension and displacement through the entire range of passive knee flexion. The sled can be fixed relative to the frame for evaluation of joint laxity.

Abstract: A fastener for anchoring in a bore in a bone has a screw having a substantially cylindrical outer surface formed with a helical screwthread. This screw has at its screwthread a thread diameter and between the turns of the thread at the surface a root diameter smaller than the thread diameter. A synthetic-resin anchor sleeve of a resilient fitted in the bore is of an outside diameter corresponding generally to the diameter of the bore and has an outer end formed with an outwardly open polygonal-section recess, an inner end formed with an inwardly open and transversely throughgoing slot, an outer end portion of an inside diameter greater than the root diameter but smaller than the thread diameter, an inner end portion of an inside diameter smaller than the root diameter, and an external helicoidal screwthread extending about two-thirds of the length of the sleeve from its inner end toward its outer end.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for attaching an acetabular cup to an acetabulum wherein the cup is rigidly attached to the acetabulum in a spaced relationship and the space between the cup and the acetabulum is filled with a flowable cement under pressure whereby a portion of the medullary bone is partially filled with cement and that pressure maintained until the flowable cement hardens thereby retaining the cup in the acetabulum in a fixed relationship.

Abstract: An intramedullary nail has a tip portion provided with means for engaging a bolt previously inserted into a bone transverse to the bone axis.

Abstract: A wound closure device includes first and second attachment members, each of which defines a concave skin contacting surface shaped to bond adhesively to the skin on a respective side of a wound. A bridge is provided to hold the two attachment members in abutting alignment to close the wound. The attachment members are sufficiently resilient to evert the skin on both sides of the wound to bring the skin into healing alignment across the wound. In this way, both the epidermis and the germinal layer or dermis of the skin can be aligned properly to minimize scar tissue formation.

Abstract: A method for revision arthroplasty for the removal of a loosened or defective prosthesis component anchored in a polymer cement set in a bone cavity. The method comprises exposing and disconnecting, if necessary, a connecting free end portion of the prosthesis component at an extremity of the bone cavity. The loosened or defective prosthesis is then removed out of the bone cavity from the extremity thereof. The cement is then removed from the cavity by the use of an instrument having a heated working end which is heated to a temperature exceeding the melting point of the cement whereby cement can be removed without perforating or damaging the bone.