Bone positioning and preparing guide systems and methods

What is this patent about?

’807 is related to the field of orthopedic surgery and mechanical bone alignment. Specifically, it addresses the correction of anatomical misalignments in the foot, such as bunion deformities, where a metatarsal must be repositioned and fused to a cuneiform to restore proper skeletal geometry.

The underlying idea behind ’807 is to utilize a specialized preparation guide that bridges the joint to ensure precise, repeatable bone resection while the bones are being realigned. The invention recognizes that for a successful fusion, the bone ends must be cut at specific angles that account for the multi-planar nature of the deformity, including rotation and lateral deviation.

The claims of ’807 focus on a method of correcting a bunion by securing a bone preparation guide across the tarsal-metatarsal joint using fixation pins. The guide features dedicated cutting slots for both the medial cuneiform and the first metatarsal, allowing a surgeon to resect the bone ends before or after moving the metatarsal into a corrected position for permanent fixation.

In practice, the guide is pinned directly to the cuneiform and the metatarsal, effectively locking the instrument's geometry to the patient's anatomy. This allows the surgeon to use a tissue removing instrument through the guide's slots to create clean, parallel, or specifically angled surfaces. By providing a stable platform for the saw blade, the system eliminates the guesswork of freehand cuts and ensures that the bone faces will sit flush against each other during the fusion process.

This approach differs from prior solutions by integrating the preparation and alignment phases into a single workflow. Rather than relying on visual estimation, the use of a fixed-slot guide secured by pins ensures that the resection is perfectly indexed to the bones themselves. This mechanical constraint allows for the correction of complex deformities in multiple planes—transverse, sagittal, and frontal—while maintaining the structural integrity required for a successful tarsal-metatarsal fusion.