Orthopedic surgery often involves installation of surgical hardware. For instance, orthopedic surgical hardware may include plates, braces, implants, or other fixtures. These hardware portions may be used in a variety of wide ranging contexts in orthopedic surgery. For instance, such hardware may be introduced to stabilize fractures, provide traction, or be utilized in other potential applications.
Installation of such hardware often includes affixing the hardware to a bone by way of orthopedic fasteners such as screws, bolts, pins, or the like. In turn, orthopedic tools such as drills, reamers, saws, drivers, and other instruments have been developed to assist in affixing orthopedic hardware to a bone. For example, when affixing hardware to a bone, pilot holes or other bores may be drilled though a bone to which the hardware is to be attached prior to securing the hardware to the bone using fasteners. As each individual patient's bone structure may be unique, the length of the bore may be measured to determine the correct fastener to be used such that the fastener extends through as much of the bore as possible without extending beyond the distal boundary of the bore.
A number of orthopedic hardware suppliers provide hardware and/or related fasteners for use in orthopedic surgeries. Each of these hardware suppliers may provide varying configurations and/or sizes of hardware. In turn, orthopedic hardware suppliers may provide kits that include the components related to the hardware to be utilized. For instance, the fasteners that accompany the hardware may be specifically related to the hardware supplier. As such, orthopedic hardware suppliers often provide depth gauges and other accompanying tools (e.g., including powered surgical instruments) in such a kit for use with the hardware supplied by the given supplier.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds