US 12,324,615 B2
Assessment of soft tissue tension in hip procedures
William Donnelly, Chermside (AU); and Matthew Thompson, Woodbridge, CT (US)
Assigned to Mako Surgical Corp., Weston, FL (US)
Filed by Mako Surgical Corp., Weston, FL (US)
Filed on Nov. 4, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/980,793.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/276,292, filed on Nov. 5, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0141368 A1, May 11, 2023
Int. Cl. A61B 17/88 (2006.01); A61B 34/10 (2016.01); A61B 90/00 (2016.01)
CPC A61B 17/8869 (2013.01) [A61B 34/10 (2016.02); A61B 90/37 (2016.02); A61B 2034/105 (2016.02)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of evaluating soft tissue tension surrounding a hip of a patient when a femoral implant or a trial is disposed in a femur of the patient, the method using navigation and software to track positions of the femur and a pelvis of the patient in real time, the method comprising:
intra-operatively reducing a femoral implant or a trial into an acetabulum of a patient;
retrieving first coordinates of a femoral head center of the femoral implant or trial when the femoral implant or trial is in a reduced position;
performing an intra-operative test to bring soft tissue of the patient into tension comprising:
gripping a neck of the femoral implant or trial;
holding and pulling the femur to distract the femur relative to the acetabulum; and
pulling the neck to distract the femoral implant or trial from the acetabulum;
retrieving second coordinates of the femoral head center when the femoral implant or trial is distracted from the acetabulum; and
determining a distraction vector based on a difference between the first coordinates and the second coordinates in a coronal plane.