Novel Passive Two-Stage Magnetic Targeting Devices for Distal Locking of Interlocking Nails

J Healthc Eng. 2017:2017:3619403. doi: 10.1155/2017/3619403. Epub 2017 Aug 13.

Abstract

Interlocking nailing is a common surgical operation to stabilize fractures in long bones. One of the difficult parts of the surgery is how to locate the position and direction of a screw hole on the interlocking nail, which is invisible to the naked eye after insertion of the nail into the medullary canal. Here, we propose a novel two-stage targeting process using two passive magnetic devices to locate the position and direction of the screw hole without radiation for the locking screw procedure. This involves a ring-shape positioning magnet inside the nail to generate a magnetic field for targeting. From the accuracy test results of these two-stage targeting devices, the search region can be identified in less than 20 seconds by the 1st-stage targeting device, while the total targeting time to locate the drilling position and direction takes less than 4 minutes, with 100% successful rate in 50 attempts. The drilling test further combines the two-stage targeting process and drilling process on the swine tibia, and it is shown that a 100% successful rate is achieved in all 10 attempts, where the total time needed is less than 5 minutes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bone Nails*
  • Fracture Fixation, Intramedullary / instrumentation*
  • Humans
  • Magnetics*
  • Swine
  • Tibial Fractures / surgery*