Paragraph Number

158

Advantageously, with pins 1280a,b in place and pins 1280e,f in place the cutting guide 1400 has been fabricated and custom engineered such that bringing pins 1280a,b and pins 1280e,f in parallel alignment with each other will align the resected surfaces of the first cuneiform 210 and first metatarsal 230 to accomplish a desired translation, rotation, and/or orientation of the first metatarsal 230 relative to the first cuneiform 210 for the procedure. In other words, the alignment features 1260a,b are placed and configured in the cutting guide 1400 such that bringing pins 1280a,b and pins 1280e,f in parallel alignment provides a desired frontal plane correction required to bring sesamoids into proper alignment, based on an evaluation of a pre-operative CAD model. Because the cutting guide 1400 is custom fabricated for a particular patient, the alignment features 1260a,b are positioned such that aligning these alignment features 1260a after the resection will provide a desired frontal plane rotation that is unique to each patient and built into, designed into, the cutting guide 1400. The detachable connector 1270 connecting the alignment feature 1260a to the body 1210 is what enables a single cutting guide 1200 to become two during a procedure and provide a custom translation and rotation of a first metatarsal 230 that can be unique for each patient.

Added by DJM 2 2022