Patent ID: 7615055

Claim:
An apparatus for use in performing an orthopaedic surgical procedure on a patient, the apparatus comprising: a tibial paddle having spaced-apart medial and lateral portions configured to contact respective medial and lateral sides of a proximal tibia of the patient; a medial femoral paddle configured to contact a medial side of a distal femur of the patient and positioned over the tibial paddle; a lateral femoral paddle spaced-apart from the medial femoral paddle, configured to contact a lateral side of the distal femur of the patient and positioned over the tibial paddle; a housing, wherein the tibial paddle, the medial femoral paddle, and the lateral femoral paddle are each coupled to the housing; an actuator operatively coupled to the at least one of the medial femoral paddle and the lateral femoral paddle; a sensor configured to generate an electrical output signal indicative of a force applied to the at least one of the medial femoral paddle and the lateral femoral paddle; a user interface coupled to and positioned on the housing; and a controller, coupled to the housing and operable to (i) receive the electrical output signal from the sensor, (ii) determine a force value based on the electrical output signal, and (iii) display the force value on the user interface, the controller including a memory device operable to store a digital representation of the force value, wherein the controller is responsive to (i) a first user input received via the user interface to store the force value in the memory device and (ii) a second user input received via the user interface to retrieve the stored force value and control the actuator to move the at least one of the medial femoral paddle and the lateral femoral paddle away from the tibial paddle until the force applied to the at least one of the medial femoral paddle and the lateral femoral paddle is equal to the stored force value.