Patent ID: 7488327

Claim:
A drill guide assembly comprising: a guide barrel for receiving a bone tool for creating a hole in bone; and an alignment assembly associated with the guide barrel for aligning the bone tool with a selected first or second fastener hole of a bone plate, the alignment assembly comprising a location post configured to be at least partially received within a recess in the bone plate and a guide barrel housing within which the location post is slidably mounted, the guide barrel housing being in facing engagement with the guide barrel along its entire length, the recess being separate and distinct from the first and second fastener holes of the bone plate; wherein the guide barrel is not pivotable relative to the alignment assembly; and wherein the location post is pivotable about the bone plate recess to allow the guide barrel to be selectively aligned with the first and second fastener holes; and wherein the alignment assembly further comprising a housing having a first axial bore configured to slidably receive at least a portion of the location post; and wherein the location post and housing further each comprising a distal end, the location post having a retracted position in which the location post distal end is located a first distance from the distal end of the housing, and an extended position in which the location post distal end is located a second distance from the distal end of the housing, wherein the second length is greater than the first length, the location post includes a plurality of slots extending from a distal end thereof, the plurality of slots defining a plurality of resilient fingers so that insertion of the resilient fingers in the recess of the bone plate compresses the resilient fingers within the recess thereby axially locking the drill guide to the bone plate; and wherein the alignment assembly further comprising a spring element disposed at least partially within a second axial bore in the housing to bias the location post to the extended position.