Technologies

Conventus is an orthopedic drill guide accessory that allows surgeons to quickly attach and secure two bone tunnel drill guides to one unit. The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine estimates five million arthroscopic surgeries take place worldwide each year and will continue to increase. The US arthroscopic equipment market accounts for 53 percent of the global market and is estimated at $636 million. With the rise in arthroscopic procedures, surgeons need efficient solutions to reduce surgical time, costs, and number of revision procedures. Many orthopedic procedures require the surgeon to drill holes for graft fixation. Current solutions to assist the placement of drill tunnels involve single drill guides that are often difficult to use, provide limited accuracy for tunnel placement, and are limited to drilling one tunnel at a time. Clemson University Researchers have developed Conventus, which allows surgeons to manipulate each drill guide independently during arthroscopic tissue fixation in desirable planes and orientations to achieve precise tunnel angles and separation distances.

Technical Summary

Clemson University Researchers have developed an orthopedic drill guide accessory device that allows for the adjoining and manipulation of two bone tunnel drill guides. The drill guide is adaptable to different surgical procedures, patient populations, and can be accessorized to any OEM drill guide kit. To date, no commercially available drill guide device can facilitate drilling two bone tunnels at the same time using one integrated device platform. This device can support two drill guides simultaneously and allows for a wide range of adjustable motion both laterally and rotationally, so a surgeon can accurately place multiple suture tunnels based on the patient’s individual anatomy.

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