1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for repairing a bone fracture. More specifically, it relates to a device that is inserted intrafocally into a fracture and deployed to properly position the fracture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reduction is a medical procedure to restore a fracture to the correct alignment. When a bone fractures, the fragments lose their alignment in the form of displacement or angulation. For the fractured bone to heal without any deformity, the bony fragments must be re-aligned to their normal anatomical position. Orthopedic surgeons attempt to recreate the normal anatomy of the fractured bone by reduction.
Bone fracture repair is surgery to fix a broken bone using plates, nails, screws, or pins. Putting a fracture back in place normally requires a large open incision and a large plate or intramedullary device to hold the reduction. For some fractures (i.e., distal radius fractures) percutaneous pins are used to reduce and secure the fracture. Percutaneous pins can be used as levers to position a fracture and fixate it with minimal or no incisions; however, this method only offers tentative fixation at best and many times the pins have to be left out of the skin, exposing the patient to the risk of infection. In addition, using the pin as both a lever and as a fixation device is imprecise and often leads to inadequate reduction and fixation of the fracture.
Many surgeons rely on external fixation devices to distract the fracture from the outside through traction and then hold the reduction until healing takes place over 6 to 8 weeks. These devices are imprecise and contain pins that protrude through the skin and can potentially damage nerves and vessels and lead to joint stiffness. In addition, as mentioned above, these pins protrude out of the skin for weeks exposing the patient to the risk of infection. External fixation devices are an indirect method of reduction and often lead to loss of reduction and inferior results.
Open plating relies on the surgeon getting a reduction by external fixation and/or external distraction (with the disadvantages noted above) or by sticking a pin or lever in the fracture to push it back in place and disimpact it. The fracture is then pinned to temporarily hold the fracture in place. The surgeon puts a locking plate on the bone with screws to hold the fracture until it heals. This method creates a large incision, causing the patient more pain and relies on the above mentioned methods to reduce the fracture prior to plating.
Intrameduallry devices currently available, like the plates, only allow the fracture to be held in place once reduced by the indirect methods noted above. Current intrameduallry devices have not been shown to be an effective means of both reducing and securing the fracture.
What is needed is a single device for both reducing and securing the fracture.
What is also needed is a small narrow device that can be inserted intrafocally into a fracture and then deployed to reduce (put back in place) an impacted fracture in a controlled fashion.
However, in view of the prior art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art how the limitations of the art could be overcome.