Abstract: A drill component is provided that enables determining the drill component's insertion depth into bone via direct measurements. The direct measurements help provide more consistently accurate insertion depth measurements as compared to typical insertion depth measurement methods that indirectly determine insertion depth using cannulas outside of the bone. The determined insertion depth corresponds to an implant size or length that a surgeon should select for a procedure. The drill component includes a shaft having an insertion end that includes multiple indications or markings that are visible on radiographic or fluoroscopic images. From one or more captured radiographic or fluoroscopic images of the drill component advanced into bone, a surgeon may count a quantity of indications or markings of the drill component on the one or more radiographic or fluoroscopic images to determine the drill component's insertion depth into the bone.

Abstract: A drill component is provided that enables determining the drill component's insertion depth into bone via direct measurements. The direct measurements help provide more consistently accurate insertion depth measurements as compared to typical insertion depth measurement methods that indirectly determine insertion depth using cannulas outside of the bone. The determined insertion depth corresponds to an implant size or length that a surgeon should select for a procedure. The drill component includes a shaft having an insertion end that includes multiple indications or markings that are visible on radiographic or fluoroscopic images. From one or more captured radiographic or fluoroscopic images of the drill component advanced into bone, a surgeon may count a quantity of indications or markings of the drill component on the one or more radiographic or fluoroscopic images to determine the drill component's insertion depth into the bone.

Abstract: Suture buttons are disclosed for fixing two bones together. The suture buttons may enable surgeons to more easily and effectively implement the suture button technique, such as to repair syndesmosis injuries in ankles. A first suture button includes a pulley peg extending from a button head. The pulley peg may be positioned with a bone hole upon installation of the first suture button, which may help protect suture and help reduce potential patient discomfort. The second suture button helps facilitate the second suture button flipping into place upon deployment from a button inserter. Each of the first and second provided suture buttons may help reduce friction between the respective buttons and suture during an installation procedure. The first and second provided suture buttons may be used together in a surgical procedure or individually with other suitable buttons or anchors.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a clamp composed of four distinct components. The ability to deconstruct the provided clamp into four components as compared to a typical two-part clamp may allow for greater ease in cleaning and sterilization. The provided clamp may include a first arm, a second arm, a cannula block, and a rotary cannula. In some instances, the provided clamp may include a locking feature for locking the rotary cannula to, and releasing it from, the cannula block. The present disclosure also provides a clamp including a scale for bone size determination, a clamp including a scale for determining how much compression force is being applied to a bone between the clamp’s jaws, a system including a bushing and a set screw in which the set screw is self-locking, and a drill component system for preparing an opening in bone for a fixation component.

Abstract: Systems and methods for fixing bone using an intramedullary nail locked to an encircling anchor including a bushing and a locking member. An exemplary system may include any combination of the nail, one or more bushings, one or more locking members, an instrument to guide installation of the bushing, at least one drill, and a driver that attaches to the bushing. The instrument may define a guide axis and be configured to be coupled to a bone such that the guide axis extends across the bone. The instrument may be used to guide a drill, the bushing, and/or the locking member along the guide axis into the bone. The nail may be configured to be placed along the medullary canal of the bone such that the nail extends through the bushing, and the locking member may be configured to lock the nail to the bushing.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a clamp composed of four distinct components. The ability to deconstruct the provided clamp into four components as compared to a typical two-part clamp may allow for greater ease in cleaning and sterilization. The provided clamp may include a first arm, a second arm, a cannula block, and a rotary cannula. In some instances, the provided clamp may include a locking feature for locking the rotary cannula to, and releasing it from, the cannula block. The present disclosure also provides a clamp including a scale for bone size determination, a clamp including a scale for determining how much compression force is being applied to a bone between the clamp's jaws, a system including a bushing and a set screw in which the set screw is self-locking, and a drill component system for preparing an opening in bone for a fixation component.

Abstract: Suture buttons are disclosed for fixing two bones together. The suture buttons may enable surgeons to more easily and effectively implement the suture button technique, such as to repair syndesmosis injuries in ankles. A first suture button includes a pulley peg extending from a button head. The pulley peg may be positioned with a bone hole upon installation of the first suture button, which may help protect suture and help reduce potential patient discomfort. The second suture button helps facilitate the second suture button flipping into place upon deployment from a button inserter. Each of the first and second provided suture buttons may help reduce friction between the respective buttons and suture during an installation procedure. The first and second provided suture buttons may be used together in a surgical procedure or individually with other suitable buttons or anchors.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides medical instruments and medical instrument components having targeted torsional failure. Such targeted torsional failure helps prevent a surgeon from applying excessive torque that may damage an implant or bone, and also helps avoid the problems and complications that arise when medical instruments break within patients during surgical procedures. To provide such targeted torsional failure, the disclosed medical instrument components include a breakaway section designed so that the component breaks at a desired amount of torque, at a desired location, and in a desired way. The provided medical instrument components may also include a sleeve to increase side-loading strength that may otherwise be reduced due to the breakaway section. The increased side-loading strength may help prevent accidental bending-type failures. The presently disclosed medical instrument component therefore provides targeted torsional failure without sacrificing side-loading strength.

Abstract: Systems and methods for fixing bone using an intramedullary nail locked to an encircling anchor including a bushing and a locking member. An exemplary system may include any combination of the nail, one or more bushings, one or more locking members, an instrument to guide installation of the bushing, at least one drill, and a driver that attaches to the bushing. The instrument may define a guide axis and be configured to be coupled to a bone such that the guide axis extends across the bone. The instrument may be used to guide a drill, the bushing, and/or the locking member along the guide axis into the bone. The nail may be configured to be placed along the medullary canal of the bone such that the nail extends through the bushing, and the locking member may be configured to lock the nail to the bushing.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides medical instruments and medical instrument components having targeted torsional failure. Such targeted torsional failure helps prevent a surgeon from applying excessive torque that may damage an implant or bone, and also helps avoid the problems and complications that arise when medical instruments break within patients during surgical procedures. To provide such targeted torsional failure, the disclosed medical instrument components include a breakaway section designed so that the component breaks at a desired amount of torque, at a desired location, and in a desired way. The provided medical instrument components may also include a sleeve to increase side-loading strength that may otherwise be reduced due to the breakaway section. The increased side-loading strength may help prevent accidental bending-type failures. The presently disclosed medical instrument component therefore provides targeted torsional failure without sacrificing side-loading strength.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides new and innovative bone anchors and bone anchor insertion systems that enable smaller bone holes by eliminating the need for a cannula to transport the bone anchor. The provided bone anchors and insertion systems also help prevent damage to suture used in a bone anchor insertion procedure. The bone anchor includes a securement portion that surrounds a core portion. The securement portion includes multiple wings that are shape-set to be splayed outward from the core portion, though may be bent towards or away from the core portion in response to an applied force. The core portion includes a rod extending from a head. The rod includes a drive feature such that a surgeon may engage an inserter with the rod to drive the bone anchor through a bone hole. The bone hole walls maintain the bone anchor in a compressed state.

Abstract: A nail for compressing two bone parts to treat bone fractures or osteotomies is provided. The nail has an elongate smooth portion and an elongate threaded portion that is constructed for generating axial compression along a length of the elongate threaded portion between two bone parts. The nail may also have one or more apertures for installing one or more crossing screws through the nail. An installation instrument particularly constructed to install the provided nail is provided. A first and second portion of the provided nail installation instrument may rotate relative to one another when a locking mechanism is disengaged, but are locked in position relative to one another when the locking mechanism is engaged, which enables installation of the provided nail.

Abstract: Devices and methods for stabilizing bone. An exemplary device may comprise a plate, an arm, and a buttress member. The plate may define one or more apertures configured to receive one or more fasteners that secure the plate onto a first bone region. The arm may project from an edge of the plate. The buttress member may be connected pivotably to an end of the arm. The buttress member may be configured to be pivoted by contact with a second bone region to conform an orientation of the buttress member to the second bone region, and may apply compression to, and/or support, the second bone region.

Abstract: Orthopedic systems and methods for installing an implant and/or boring a bone bicortically. The system may include a drill having a proximal boring portion configured to bore a larger hole in a bone more efficiently when the drill rotates in a first direction compared to an opposite second direction, and a distal boring portion configured to bore a smaller hole in the bone more efficiently when the drill rotates in the second direction. The implant may be configured to be implanted at least partially in the bone, such that a first region of the implant is located in the larger hole and a second region of the implant is located in the smaller hole. In an exemplary method, the larger hole and the smaller hole may be bored in the bone's near cortex and far cortex, respectively, by a shaft and a nose of the drill rotated in opposite directions.

Abstract: A bone rivet is provided that may be used as an alternative to a bone screw for bone fixation. The bone rivet includes a head and a threaded shaft that can be expanded upon installing the bone rivet into bone. A channel extends through the bone rivet and is shaped corresponding to a bulb of a mandrel used for installing the bone rivet. A first section of the channel has a smaller width than the mandrel's bulb to enable the bulb to expand the threaded shaft and a second section is sized to have a greater width. The installation process eliminates the task of rotating a typical bone screw during its installation. The threaded shaft also includes a cutting flute, which cuts a thread path for the threaded shaft into the bone thereby reducing the amount of torque needed to rotate and remove the bone rivet from bone.

Abstract: A bone screw is provided that reduces insertion torque when driving the screw into bone while maintaining pull-out strength. The provided bone screw includes one or more threads having a portion with a reduced flank profile that helps reduce the amount of torque required to drive the bone screw into bone. The portion with the reduced flank profile has an equal thread depth or height as the portion of the one or more threads with a non-reduced flank profile, thereby helping to maintain pull-out strength. The reduced flank profile portion is away from the bone screw's insertion tip. As such, the bone screw's non-reduced flank profile portion creates internal female threads that have a correspondingly larger flank profile than the screw's reduced flank profile portion, thereby reducing friction between the reduced flank profile portion of the one or more threads and the interior female thread.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a system, method, and cannulated anchor for treating acute or chronic instability of two boney structures in a patient. The provided cannulated anchor includes an opening through which suture, and in some instances a tendon graft, may be positioned. The cannulated anchor also includes a securing mechanism that helps maintain its position when installed in bone, such as flexible prongs, angled tabs, or ridges. The cannulated anchor is installed by being translated over a k-wire with a cannulated inserter that engages the cannulated anchor. The k-wire passes through the tendon graft, if used, as the cannulated anchor is translated over the k-wire. Passing the k-wire through the tendon graft allows the tendon graft to take up more space within the cannulated anchor's opening versus being biased to one side of the k-wire during insertion.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a clamp composed of four distinct components. The ability to deconstruct the provided clamp into four components as compared to a typical two-part clamp may allow for greater ease in cleaning and sterilization. The provided clamp may include a first arm, a second arm, a cannula block, and a rotary cannula. In some instances, the provided clamp may include a locking feature for locking the rotary cannula to, and releasing it from, the cannula block. The present disclosure also provides a clamp including a scale for bone size determination, a clamp including a scale for determining how much compression force is being applied to a bone between the clamp's jaws, a system including a bushing and a set screw in which the set screw is self-locking, and a drill component system for preparing an opening in bone for a fixation component.

Abstract: Devices and methods for stabilizing bone. An exemplary device may comprise a plate, an arm, and a buttress member. The plate may define one or more apertures configured to receive one or more fasteners that secure the plate onto a first bone region. The arm may project from an edge of the plate. The buttress member may be connected pivotably to an end of the arm. The buttress member may be configured to be pivoted by contact with a second bone region to conform an orientation of the buttress member to the second bone region, and may apply compression to, and/or support, the second bone region.

Abstract: A drill component is provided that enables determining the drill component's insertion depth into bone via direct measurements. The direct measurements help provide more consistently accurate insertion depth measurements as compared to typical insertion depth measurement methods that indirectly determine insertion depth using cannulas outside of the bone. The determined insertion depth corresponds to an implant size or length that a surgeon should select for a procedure. The drill component includes a shaft having an insertion end that includes multiple indications or markings that are visible on radiographic or fluoroscopic images. From one or more captured radiographic or fluoroscopic images of the drill component advanced into bone, a surgeon may count a quantity of indications or markings of the drill component on the one or more radiographic or fluoroscopic images to determine the drill component's insertion depth into the bone.