Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A notch/chamfer guide has chamfer and trochlear recess cutting slots and a notch, corresponding to the intercondylar box of a femoral implant, with a removable notch slot attachment. With the notch slot attachment assembled to the cutting guide adjacent the notch, blade receiving slots are defined between the notch slot attachment and the inside walls of the notch. The slots provide control to the saw blade to prevent the blade from angling away from the notch walls and making imprecise cuts. The notch slot attachment is removable to allow easy access to the notch area so that a manual instrument such as an osteotome can be used for final removal of the notch bone and to facilitate the use of an oscillating saw in the chamfer slots of the guide. A U-shaped notch is provided for cutting a trochlear recess that will lie behind the anterior portion of the implanted knee component to receive the backside of the patellar track of the implant. The outside surface of the guide, corresponding to the distal aspect of the femur, is angled so that it is parallel to the guide surface which guides the cut forming the top of the intercondylar notch. This parallel external surface of the guide acts as a visual reference such that when a saw blade being used to cut the sides of the intercondylar notch is held perpendicular to the external surface it will intersect at a right angle the cut forming the top of the intercondylar notch.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim