Patent ID: 7207994

Claim:
A set of small cannulated bone screws with the screws sized by major diameters of screw threads thereon, the screw set comprising: a plurality of screws of different major diameter sizes ranging between approximately 3.0 mm and approximately 7.5 mm; a screw wall of each screw in the set having predetermined high strength levels; an axial through bore of each screw in the set having an optimized diameter thereof for receipt of a guide wire therethrough; a first screw performance ratio for each of the screws defined by dividing the major diameter by the through bore diameter with the first screw performance ratio being minimized for each screw in the set; a thread depth of each screw in the set that is optimized in size to provide the screws with pull-out resistance; and a second screw performance ratio for each of the screws defined by dividing the major diameter by the size of the thread depth with the second screw performance ratio being minimized for each screw in the set, wherein the plurality of screws include smallest screws in the set having major diameters between approximately 3.0 mm and approximately 4.5 mm, the optimized through bore diameters for the smallest screws is maximized in size to permit a maximum diameter guide wire to be received therethrough, and the optimized bore diameters of the smallest screws are approximately 1.35 mm for the 3.0 mm major diameter screw and approximately 2.49 mm for the 4.5 mm major diameter screw, and the high strength screw walls of the smallest screws have thicknesses that are approximately 0.267 mm for the 3.0 mm major diameter screw and appoximately 0.343 mm for the 4.5 mm major diameter screw.