ZA200506968B - Locking screw - Google Patents

Description

rey 2005/0636

I

English translation of the International Patent Application No. PCT/CH2003/000202 “Locking screw” in the name of Synthes AG Chur

LOCKING SCREW

The invention relates to a locking screw of the introductory portion of claim 1.

The locking of medullary pins is part of the state of the art. The locking screws are introduced into the transverse boreholes of the medullary pin either with the help of an imaging method (X-ray control) or a more or less complicated targeting device. In both cases, a certain targeting inaccuracy is unavoidable, that is, the tip of the screw cannot be aligned exactly coaxially with the middle axis of the transverse borehole and, instead, deviates therefrom by a certain amount. So that the locking screw ends up in and can be passed through the transverse borehole in spite of this targeting error, the external diameter of the screw is underdimensioned relative to the diameter of the transverse borehole. If the targeting accuracy remains in the range of this underdimensioning, the locking screw can be passed through the transverse boreholes without problems in spite of the targeting error. However, because of the underdimensioning, there is a certain clearance between the locking screw and the transverse borehole.

This clearance defines the amount by which the main fragments of the bone, which are fixed in the corresponding locking hole by means of locking screws, can move relative to the pin and, accordingly, because of the rigidity of the pin, also relative to other main bone fragments fastened with the same pin. Together with the flexibility of the material and of the overall device, this may cumulatively assume a magnitude, which prevents successful healing or delays it significantly. Admittedly, this clearance is unavoidable in order to guarantee the applicability of the locking for the surgeon. However, it is clinically undesirable for certain indications, such as metaphysical fragments.

Even pins with a full cross section, which may have an internal thread in the locking hole, are not without clearance. This internal thread merely prevents the pin from moving axially on the locking screw.

The invention is to provide a remedy here. It is an object of the invention to create a locking screw, with which the clearance, existing between it and the transverse borehole in a locking medullary pin, can be eliminated.

Pursuant to the invention, this objective is accomplished with a locking screw, which has the distinguishing features of claim 1.

In this connection, the line connecting the centers of gravity of the axially sequential orthogonal cross-sectional surfaces of the locking screw is regarded as the central line.

The advantages, achieved by the invention, are seen to lie essentially therein that, due to the inventive locking screw, clearance between the transverse boreholes of the medullary pin and the locking screw can be eliminated. The following are further advantages: the accuracy of introducing the pin and the time required by the surgeon remain within the previous limits; e the firmness of the locking screw is retained; and e the extraction in the event of a possible screw breakage is assured.

The invention and further developments of the invention are explained in even greater in the following by means of the partially diagrammatic representations of several examples.

In the case of a special embodiment of the invention, the locking screw does not have any rotational axis of symmetry.

The central line may lie in one or more planes. In the case of a special embodiment, the central line is formed by several straight lines, which are transposed relative to one another, so that a simpler manufacturing process results.

In the case of a special embodiment, a connecting straight line, extending between the two exit points of the central line, has a distance x from the central line at least at one place between the two exit points, x being greater than 0.01 mm and preferably greater than 0.10 mm. The distance x advisably observes the condition that 0.01 d < x < 0.30 d and preferably the condition that 0.05 d < x < 0.20 d.

In the case of a further embodiment, the locking screw is divided between the two exit points of the central line, between which there is a distance L, into three sections A, B and C,

A) section A extending from the exit point at the screw head by the amount of 0.10

L to 0.25 L towards the exit point at the free end of the screw shaft,

B) section B extending from the exit point at the free end of the screw shaft by the amount of 0.10 to 0.25 L towards the exit point at the screw head,

C) section C being disposed between the two sections A and B and having a length

C = (L-A-B) and

D) the central line in sections A and B being essentially linear and extending coaxially to one another.

This results in the advantage that the locking in the opposite corticalis is accomplished by a rotational movement about the connecting straight line and the locking in the corticalis at the head essentially is along the borehole axis.

In a further embodiment, the central line is curved S-shaped or eccentric only in section C. The central line may have a point of inflection, preferably only in section C. It may also have at least two points of inflection at a distance y from one another, preferably only in section C.

The locking screw may be used together with a locking medullary pin, which has at least one transverse borehole. Advisably, the transverse borehole has a cross-sectional profile P with a maximum extent "a", measured in the direction of the central line, and a maximum extent "b", measured perpendicularly to "a", on the one hand, a > b and, on the othera>d <b.

The cross-sectional profile may be circular with a = b. Advisably, the condition that 0.70 b < d < 0.95 b and preferably 0.8 b < d < 0.9 b applies in the following.

The distance x advisably observes the condition x < (b -d - 1 mm), b being the diameter of the transverse borehole in mm and the d the diameter of the shaft of the screw in mm.

In the case of a further embodiment, the distance y observes the condition that 0.05(b-d) < x < 0.35(b-d) and preferably the condition that 1.5(b-c) < x < 2.2(b-d), d being the diameter of the screw shaft in mm and b the diameter of the transverse borehole in mm.

In the case of a further embodiment, the distance y between two adjacent points of inflection essentially observes the condition that D = ny, n being an odd number and D the diameter of the medullary pin.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a locking screw

Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal section through the locking screw of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 shows a longitudinal section through a locking medullary pin with a transverse borehole, into which the locking screw of Fig. 1 is introduced and

Fig. 4 shows a longitudinal section through a modified locking screw.

The locking screw, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, comprises a screw head 2 with a hexagonal socket 8, a screw shaft 3 with an external thread 7 and a central line 4, which has an exit point 5 at the screw head 2 and an exit point 6 at the free end of the screw shaft 3. Unlike the usual straight screws, the central line 4 is not a straight line and. instead. in the example of Fig. 2 shown (in the length region C defined below), consists of a coiled line. which lies in the plane of the drawing and has two points of inflection 11, 12.

The connecting straight line 13, extending through the two exit points 5, 6 of the central line, therefore deviates in places from the central line 4 by the variable amount x. In the example shown, the maximum deviation of x, measured at the points of inflection of the central line, is 0.2 mm.

The central line 4 is divided into sections A, B and C between the two exit points 5. 6 of the central line 4, which are at a distance L from one another. Section A

0) extends from the exit point 5 at the screw head 2 by the amount of 1/6 L in the direction of the exit point 6 at the free end of the screw shaft 3 and extends essentially in a straight line. Section B extends from the exit point 6 at the free end of the screw shaft 3 by the amount of 1/6 L in the direction of the exit point 5 at the screw head 2 and also extends essentially in a straight line, coaxially with section A. Section C is disposed between the two sections A and B and has a curvature, as described above.

Fig. 3 shows how the locking screw 1 is introduced into the transverse borehole 9 of a medullary pin 10. Moreover, the screw shaft 3 has a diameter d (Fig. 2), which is smaller than the dimension "a" of the transverse borehole 9.

A modification of the locking screw 1 is shown in Fig. 4, in which the central line 4 consists of three mutually offset straight lines. The distance x between the central line 4 and the connecting straight line in section C between the two exit points 5 and 6 is 0.15 mm in the case of this example.

In the following, the technique of screwing the locking screw into the transverse borehole of a medullary pin is explained briefly: a) the surgeon turns the locking screw 1 in a standard fashion through the transverse borehole 9 of the medullary pin 10; b) the relatively thin and soft corticalis yields as the locking screw 1 is screwed through it, so that there is no strain over the thickness of the corticalis; c) in the region of the medullary pin 10, the locking screw 1 is stretched somewhat because of the reaction of the wall of the transverse borehole, so that an increased force is required for screwing in the screw and a higher holding force results; d) in the event of a cannulation of the medullary pin 10, the locking screw 1 winds through the entry opening of the transverse borehole 9 of the medullary pin 10 into the transverse borehole 9, since the diameter D of the medullary pin 10 is larger than the distance y between the two points of inflection 11, 12. Due to the screwing-in movement or due to the drilling force of the surgeon, an elastic deformation is forced upon the locking screw 1 no later than when it takes hold of the opposite corticalis.

This leads to an angularly stable locking of the medullary pin.

Claims (19)

. 1986/PCT - 25.8.2005 reg Claims

1. Locking screw with a screw head, a screw shaft with the diameter d, which consists of a core and an external thread, and with a central line, which is defined as the line connecting the centers of gravity of the axially sequential, orthogonal cross-sectional surfaces of the locking screw and which has an exit point at the screw head and an exit point at the free end of the screw shaft, characterized in that the central line is not a continuously straight line and has a point of inflection.

2. The locking screw of claim 1, characterized in that it does not have a rotational axis of symmetry.

3. The locking screw of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the central line lies in a plane.

4. The locking screw of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the central line lies in several planes.

5. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the central line is formed from several mutually transposed straight lines.

6. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 5, characterized in that a straight connecting line, passing through the two exit points of the central line, is at a distance x from the central line at least at one place between the two exit points, with x > 0.01 mm.

7. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the distance x fulfills the condition that 0.01 d < x < 0.30 d. AMENDED SHEET x1

8. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it is divided between the two exit points of the central line, between which there is a distance L, into three sections A, B and C, A) section A extending from the exit point at the screw head by the amount of

0.10 L and 0.25 L towards the exit point at the free end of the screw shaft , B) section B extending from the exit point at the free end of the screw shaft by the amount of 0.10 to 0.25 L towards the exit point at the screw head , C) section C being disposed between the two sections A and B and having a length C = (L-A-B) and D) the central line in sections A and B being essentially linear and extendsing coaxially to one another.

9. The locking screw of claim 8, characterized in that the central line is curved S-shaped or is eccentric only in section C.

10. The locking screw of claims 8 or 9, characterized in that the central line has a point of inflection only in section C.

11. The locking screw of one of the claims 8 to 10, characterized in that central line has at least two points of inflection at a distance y from one another only in section C.

12. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 11, characterized in at the diameter “d" of the screw shaft is essentially constant.

13. The locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the diameter of the core is essentially constant.

14. The locking medullary pin with a locking screw of one of the claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the locking medullary pin has at least one transverse borehole with a cross-sectional profile P, a maximum extent "a" measured in the AMENDED SHEET

§\0 direction of central line and a maximum extent "b" measured perpendicularly to "a", on the one hand, a > b and, on the other, a >d <b.

15. The locking medullary pin of claim 14, characterized in that the cross-sectional profile is circular with a = b and, moreover, the condition that 0.70 b <d < 0.95 b applies.

16. The locking medullary pin of claims 14 or 15, characterized in that the distance x fulfills the condition x < (b-d+1mm), b being the diameter of the transverse borehole in mm and d being the diameter of the screw shaft in mm.

17. The locking medullary pin of one of the claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the distance x fulfills the condition 0.05 (b-d) < x < 0.35 (b-d), d being the diameter of the screw shaft in mm.

18. The locking medullary pin of one of the claims 14 to 17, characterized in that the distance y between two adjacent points of inflection essentially fulfills the condition D = ny, n being an odd number and D the diameter of the medullary pin.

19. Locking screw substantially as herein described and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 3 or Figure 4. AMENDED SHEET