Journal
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
Volume 14, Issue 12, Pages 4402-4410Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2014.2334139
Keywords
Interlocking nail; orthopedic surgery; electromagnetic; magnetic; targeting; locating
Funding
- National Chiao Tung University
- National Taiwan University Hospital (Hsinchu Branch) [102W970-HCH102-09]
- Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology [102-2221-E-009-034]
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At present, intramedullary interlocking nails are widely used for bone-fracture fixation in orthopedic surgeries. Surgeons often use X-ray imaging to find the actual location of the distal screw-holes of the nail after the nail is inserted into the medullary canal of a bone for fixation. Thus, the patients and medical team are inevitably exposed to radioactivity. In this paper, we report a radiation-free electromagnetic/magnetic-coupled targeting system to locate the distal screw-holes of the nail used in interlocking-nail surgery. The targeting system consists of a c-shaped electromagnet with a pick-up coil, a highly permeable curved silicon-steel strip embedded on the nail, a guiding mechanism, and electronic measuring instruments. An alternative current is applied to the electromagnet to generate a uniform magnetic field/flux in the electromagnet's air gap. When the nail inserted into the medullary canal of a bone is scanned through or rotated in the air gap of the electromagnet, the magnetic flux in the air gap is influenced by the silicon-steel strip embedded on the nail. The variation of the magnetic flux induces a voltage response in the pick-up coil due to electromagnetic induction. The pattern of the voltage response is analyzed to establish a criterion for screw-hole targeting. The results obtained using this criterion reveal that the maximum targeting error of the location and orientation targeting for a screw-hole with a diameter of 5 mm is <2 mm and 10 degrees, respectively. Thus, the system/approach is sufficiently simple and accurate to be used by surgeons in clinical surgery.
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