Market Overview:
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.
Application Stage of Development
Arthroscopic knee surgeries (ACL and PCL repair) Prototype
Advantages
• Allows surgeon to efficiently manipulate drill guides to meet precise angles and distances, improving
placement and accuracy of bone tunnels
• Allows surgeon to drill two bone tunnels at once, minimizing surgical time
• Stabilizes both drill guides and maintains alignment, providing additional stability and decreasing the
chance for reduced tissue to shift or malalignment
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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Inventors: Jeremy Mercuri, Michael Stokes, George Seignious, Alan Marionneaux, Allison
Santillo, Steven Singleton, Brian Keim, Adam Marrocco
Application Type: Provisional, Utility
Serial Number: 62/117,666, 15/046,697
CURF Reference: 2015-030