Patent ID: 8475534

Claim:
A method of preparing an elbow joint for arthroscopic repair surgery, comprising the steps of: forming a humeral trough in a humeral condyle by: forming two sockets or tunnels in the humeral condyle; providing a humeral assembly including a template, a plurality of drill pins, and a plurality of corresponding cutters over the two sockets or tunnels; aligning the template with a curvature of the humeral condyle; inserting the drill pins through the template; and inserting the cutters over the drill pins and removing bone from an articular surface of the humeral condyle and from an area between the two sockets or tunnels, to form the humeral trough; and installing a humeral implant in the humeral trough, the humeral implant having an outer surface shaped in the form of the humeral condyle, an inner surface which is about parallel to the outer surface and is substantially flat in its entirety, and having two substantially similar projections extending from the inner surface in a direction about perpendicular to the inner surface, the two projections each being provided with a through-hole for receiving respective suture strands, the humeral implant being pulled into the humeral trough by using the suture strands passing through the through-holes of the projections.