ARTICULATION SUPPORT DEVICE

摘要

Purpose of the system the determination of the correct position of an external structure that, bridging between the bone structures of a physiological articulation, should allow relative motion between the parts without contact nor load, thus allowing healing of an unloaded but working articulation. The system is composed by two fundamental elements, a measuring device allowing the continuous recording of six parameters fully describing the relative motion between its extremes, and an articulation fixator, both supplied at each end by reference slots. In particular the measuring device supplies a computer, equipped with dedicated soft/hardware, the co-ordinates of any point connected to the last member of the kinematic chain of the measuring device with respect to the first member of said chain. The fixator is made in three portions, each bearing six degrees of freedom between its extremes. The end portions of the fixator have to be set to a static configuration, in order to allow properly placing the mechanism used to reproduce the patient's geometry (the central portion of the fixator), with respect to the pins inserted into the patient's bones. Setting of the various degrees of freedom of the system is guided by a computer, while the seventeenth is left to the doctor to centre the articulation supporting device with respect to the articulation itself, and the last coincides with the degree of motion left to the patient. As alternative to the eighteen degrees of freedom fixator, a passive device presenting six degrees of freedom could be used. Such structure, once regulated with the help of the computer, will be used to allow blocking the real fixator in the configuration required by the patient. As further alternative, a mounting robot directly connected to the computer could be used, in order to physically determine the relative position between the fixator member connected to the patient's bone, and the frame or the rod of the mechanism that best fits patient's motion.