Summary

A novel device designed to assist surgeons to drill parallel holes into the medial aspect of the patella to fix the ligament graf

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the design and testing of a drill guiding device for Medial Patella Femoral Ligament (MPFL) reconstruction surgery. The novel device was designed to assist surgeons to drill parallel holes into the medial aspect of the patella to fix the ligament graft. To reduce the cost of the device, the manufacturing method chosen for this device was 3D printing. The device was tested on 3D printed patellas of various dimensions and the results reveal that the device was successful in guiding the surgical drill into the patella to drill parallel holes. Moreover, the device was augmented with a radiopaque scale which would allow the surgeon to accurately predict the landmarks to drill and also measure the drill depth of the tunnels.