Over time, artificial joints, in particular hip joints, become damaged due to normal wear and tear of any one or any combination of the prosthetic implant, the bone interfacing with the implant, the bone surrounding the implant, and in more extreme cases, due to infection of the surrounding bone. In light of the damage, the prosthesis does not fit the bone securely and is ineffective in providing appropriate support and movement for a patient, often causing the patient pain. To repair such defects in the case of damaged hip joints, a surgeon manually fits a revision system, such as the Restoration® GAP II Revision Acetabular System which includes flanges extending from a central dome, i.e., acetabular cup device, to the patient's acetabulum. During such manual procedures, the surgeon has to use specialized tools to manually bend and trim substantially rigid flanges of the implant to desired shapes that conform to the patient's pelvic bone, in particular the ilium. The surgeon then secures both the central dome and flanges to the pelvic bone using bone screws placed through screw holes having a standardized configuration. Such manual techniques potentially expose the patient to a lack of conformity between the implant and the bone that can lead to loosening of the implant or material debridement caused by movement of the implant due to undesired play between the implant and the bone.
Additionally, implants for these revision systems are provided in a limited number of standard shapes and sizes that may not conform all that closely to a patient's anatomy or that may not have flanges that align with more dense regions of bone for fastening using the bone screws. These limitations create a higher tendency for future damage or failure earlier than anticipated. To compensate for these issues, porous augments and shim augments have been attached to both the central dome as well as to the flanges to provide regions for bone ingrowth. However, the use of augments requires components additional to the main implant and, like the main implant, such augments are substantially inflexible and have screw holes in a standardized configuration that match the screw holes of the portion of the main implant underlying the augments.
In light of the limitations of revision implants, there exists a need for an implant that more closely conforms to and integrates with interfacing bone.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds