Long bone reamer

Details Long bone reamer Long bone reamer

1999-10-13

2001-01-02

Philogene, Pedro (Department: 3732)

Surgery

Instruments

Orthopedic instrumentation

C606S079000, C408S227000

Utility Patent

active

06168599

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to surgical long bone reamers formed from a plurality of interlocking blades.
2. Description of Related Art
The prior art patent literature discloses a small group of reamers and cutters for removing bone and tissue from joints that may be relevant to the state of the art. Many of those reamers are for shallow bone applications. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,637 entitled “SURGICAL DEVICE FOR REMOVING BONE AND TISSUE FROM JOINT MEMBERS” teaches a slotted, surgical device including a hemispheric housing that supports one or more cutting blades for bone and/or tissue cutting. Two and three blade embodiments are described. In both cases, the blades abut centrally of the device and interlock with the base at discrete points.
French Patent 1,031,888 describes a plurality of cutting blades which are radially disposed, equiangularly spaced atop a supporting plate and locked to the plate by fasteners. The resulting tool is used for cutting the acetabular portion of a hip prior to joint replacement.
Similarly, French Patent 1,041,311 describes a bone cavity forming tool which employs multiple blades in a hemispheric array.
Soviet Union Patent 1225-543-A entitled “BONE CUTTING TOOL FOR SURGERY” describes a cutter comprising multiple arcuate cutting elements extending from a central rod outwardly in an umbrella-like fashion.
French Patent 2,233,972 entitled “ARTIFICIAL HIP JOINT FITTING EQUIPMENT” describes another multi-blade, round headed milling cutter for acetabular applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,959 entitled “REMOVAL OF TISSUE” describes a soft tissue cutter having an oval, rather than hemispheric, shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,291 entitled “ROTATIONALLY EXPANDABLE ATHERECTOMY CUTTER ASSEMBLY” describes another soft tissue cutter in which the blades define a cylindrical, not hemispheric, structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,267 entitled “DISPOSABLE ACETABULAR REAMER CUP”describes a hemispheric, cup-shaped hip reamer. With regard to this structure, note also U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,116,165 and 5,376,092.
The following U.S. Patents describe prior art shallow bone reamers of possible interest, using multi-blade configurations, but for non-hip applications: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,554,192; 5,122,134, 5,180,384 and 5,318,576.
In addition to shallow bone reamers, the prior art also discloses a few possibly relevant references to long bone reamers. For example, note U.S. Pat. No. 4, 473,070 entitled INTRAMEDULLARY REAMER. That device includes a circular, replaceable blade that fits onto a grooved body member. There does not appear, however, to be any suggestion of interlinking or cross over blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 314,086 entitled BUNG CUTTER is of possible interest even though it does not relate to bone surgery. That references describes a structure including a mortised disk which rotates into position and includes a plurality of longitudinally extending cutters which seat in the disk via notches or mortises F on the periphery thereof. The structure, however, appears to relate primarily to cutting a bung hole in a barrel rather than reaming a hole therethrough.
The following patents are all cited as being of general interest only and are essentially the same in that they describe a reamer head for a long bone. The blades appear to generally radiate from a central portion and do not appear to be interlinked: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,554,192; 4,706,659; 5,122,134; and, 5,190,548.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,583 entitled ORTHOPEDIC SINGLE-BLADE BONE CUTTER and U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,645 entitled DEVICE FOR GUIDING AN INTERNAL SAW FOR LONG TUBULAR BONE OSTEOTOMY are cited as being as general relevance only.
While a few long and shallow joint reamers are known in the prior art, they tend to be expensive, or hard to construct, or both. There clearly appears to be a need for a safe, easy to assemble, inexpensive and effective reamer especially for the femur or tibia. Insofar as understood, none of the prior art known to the inventor, whether taken individually or in combination, hints, teaches or suggests the novel long bone reamer disclosed herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly described, the invention comprises a long bone reamer including a plurality of interlinking cutting blades which, when assembled, has a cutting head or tip with a cutting edge which lies in a hemispherical plane.
According to a first embodiment of the invention, the reamer comprises six blades each having a straight, long side and a curved tip. The six blades are held in position by a plurality of disks each having six blade receiving slots therein. Each blade also includes an inside surface having a plurality of tabs which, when assembled on the disks, overlap each other. The six blades actually comprise three sets of two blades each wherein the tabs of each of the three sets are offset so that they don't interfere with each other. When properly assembled, each of the tabs of the three sets of blades overlap each other and may be welded in that position.
According to a second embodiment of the invention, four blades are assembled in a boxlike structure to form the long bone reamer. Two sets of blades include a hollow aperture with inwardly facing tabs thereon, which mate with corresponding slots in the second set of blades. A rod or similar structure is located in the hollow interior of the boxlike structure for additional support.
When properly assembled, each of the two embodiments has edges which when rotated, all lie in a semi-circular surface. Moreover, when each of the embodiments is rotated, the longitudinal cutting edges of each of the blades lie in a cylindrical plane. The resulting structure is safe, easy to assemble, inexpensive and effective as a long bone reamer.


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