Patent attributes
A method of evaluating a human knee joint including a femur bone, a tibia bone, and ligaments. The method includes: inserting into the joint a tensioner-balancer that includes at least one force sensor; providing an electronic receiving device; moving the knee joint through at least a portion of its range of motion; using the electronic receiving device to collect data from the at least one force sensor; processing the collected force data to produce a digital geometric model of the knee joint, wherein the data includes: a medial spline representing a locus of points of contact of a medial condyle of the femur F with the tensioner-balancer, over a range of knee flexion angles; and a lateral spline representing the locus of points of contact of the femur F with the tensioner-balancer, over a range of knee flexion angles; and storing the digital geometric model for further use.
