Patent ID: 8594395
Filing Date: 2013-11-26
Classification: A61B,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for designing a customized patient-specific bone cutting block for use in an orthopaedic surgical procedure to perform a bone cut on a patient's bone, the method comprising: determining a cartilage thickness value indicative of the average thickness of the cartilage present on a relevant end of the patient's bone, determining a reference contour based on a surface contour of a three-dimensional model of the relevant end of the patient's bone, generating a scaled reference contour by scaling the reference contour based on the cartilage thickness value, and defining a customized patient-specific negative contour of the customized patient-specific bone cutting block using the scaled reference contour, wherein generating the scaled reference contour includes (i) determining a reference point in the three-dimensional model of the patient's bone, and (ii) increasing the distance between the reference point and a point on the reference contour, wherein determining the reference point includes (i) generating a first line segment extending from a first point defined on the surface contour of a medial side of the three-dimensional model to a second point defined on the surface contour of a lateral side of the three-dimensional model, (ii) generating a second line segment extending from a third point defined on the surface contour of an anterior side of the three-dimensional model to a fourth point defined on the surface contour of a posterior side of the three-dimensional model, wherein the first, second, third, and forth points are coplanar, and (iii) determining a point of intersection between the first line segment and the second line segment, the point of intersection corresponding to the reference point.