Surgical instrument design for the accurate cutting of bone for implant fixation

Oscillating saws and rotary drills are the most common instruments used in orthopaedic surgery for the cutting of bone and the drilling of holes through the cortex in preparing surfaces for implants to be placed on the bone ends. To obtain precision of placement of the surfaces and holes, various techniques have been developed to guide the instruments, such as holes, slots and flat surfaces. For sawing surfaces in total knee replacement a survey was conducted to assess the accuracy of cutting the distal end of the femur and the proximal end of the tibia with both slotted and surface guides used in some of the currently available prostheses instrument sets.