Femoral Antegrade Starting Tool (FAST) for intramedullary nailing

Abstract

Intramedullary (IM) nailing is the standard of care for adult lower extremity long bone fracture stabilisation. Key to this procedure is obtaining the correct entry point and trajectory for initial guide pin insertion. This work presents the Femoral Antegrade Starting Tool (FAST), a surgical tool that addresses the lack of connectivity in utilising sequential 2D fluoroscopic images to achieve 3D alignment of femoral guide pin placement. The user centred design and development of FAST is introduced and the performance of this device evaluated during guide pin insertion for femoral IM nailing in a series of sawbones and cadaveric models leading to a first in human clinical cohort study. The results demonstrated the potential of FAST to improve time and consistency of the guide pin insertion for femoral IM nailing for less experienced surgeons and trainees. Overall, FAST was found to be easy to use with a high degree of clinical interest (particularly for use in large patients) and acceptance motivating continued development of this new technology.

Keywords:

• New technology development
• femoral intramedullary nailing
• Femoral Antegrade Starting Tool (FAST)
• guide pin orientation
• cadaveric and clinical cohort study

Disclosure statement

A US patent has been granted Positioning and alignment instrument for introducing surgical devices into bone #10869679, 22 December 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship.