1. A method for repairing a soft tissue or bone defect, comprising:
selecting one of a plurality of sizing guides having a base perimeter size corresponding to a size of the defect, each base having a different perimeter size and each base having a plurality of apertures spaced apart a predetermined distance from each other, the predetermined distance being the same for each of the plurality of sizing guides;
positioning the base of the selected one of the sizing guides against a distal end of the femur relative to the defect;
positioning a plurality of guide wires through the plurality of apertures in the base of the selected one of the sizing guides and fixing the plurality of guide wires to the distal end of the femur such that the plurality of guide wires are parallel to each other; and
positioning a first guide over the plurality of guide wires and against the distal end of the femur to guide a first cutting member relative to the femur.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein positioning a plurality of guide wires through the plurality of apertures in the base of the selected one of the sizing guides includes positioning a plurality of guide wires through a plurality of cannulated members extending from the base of the selected one of the sizing guides, the plurality of cannulated members being aligned with the plurality of apertures.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein positioning the base of the selected one of the sizing guides against a distal end of the femur includes positioning the base of the selected one of the sizing guides against a distal end of the femur such that a longitudinal axis of each of the plurality of cannulated members is between approximately thirty and forty degrees posterior to a longitudinal axis of the femur and a longitudinal axis of the plurality of guide wires is correspondingly between approximately thirty and forty degrees posterior to the longitudinal axis of the femur.
4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
selecting a soft tissue cutting member from a plurality of soft tissue cutting members each having a different base perimeter size corresponding to the different base perimeter sizes of the plurality of sizing guides, the selected soft tissue cutting member having a base perimeter size corresponding to the base perimeter size of the selected one of the sizing guides;
positioning the selected soft tissue cutting member about the plurality of guide wires such that the plurality of guide wires are received in a corresponding plurality of internal bores of the selected soft tissue cutting member; and
cutting a perimeter outline in the soft tissue relative to the defect.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein cutting a perimeter outline in the soft tissue relative to the defect includes impacting an elongated shaft of the selected soft tissue cutting member with an impacting member to urge a cutting edge into the soft tissue to cut the perimeter outline.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein positioning a first guide over the plurality of guide wires and against the distal end of the femur includes:
positioning a first cutting member stop guide relative to the defect using the plurality of guide wires as a locating reference for the first cutting member stop guide; and
using the first cutting member stop guide to guide the first cutting member to form outer pocket portions of a reference pocket configured to receive a femoral implant.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein using the first cutting member stop guide to guide the first cutting member to form outer pocket portions of a reference pocket includes:
positioning the first cutting member stop guide about the plurality of guide wires such that a pair of outer guide wires of the plurality of guide wires are received in a pair of outer apertures positioned in a base of the first cutting member stop guide; and
positioning the first cutting member over each of the pair of outer guide wires such that the first cutting member is received in and guided by each of the outer apertures to form the outer pocket portions of the reference pocket.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising self-centering the first cutting member stop guide about each of the pair of outer guide wires upon the first cutting member being slidably received in each of the corresponding outer apertures of the first cutting member stop guide.
9. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing the first cutting member with a bone engaging end having a cutting portion extending for a predetermined length to a stop collar, where the predetermined length corresponds to a predetermined thickness of the outer apertures of the first cutting member stop guide to thereby limit a cutting depth of the outer pocket portions.
10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:
removing the first guide over the plurality of guide wires;
positioning a second cutting member stop guide over the plurality of guide wires and relative to the outer pocket portions of the reference pocket;
positioning the first cutting member over a central guide wire of the plurality of guide wires and into a central aperture formed in the second cutting member stop guide; and
using the central guide wire and central aperture to guide the first cutting member to form an inner pocket portion of the reference pocket in the femur.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein positioning a second cutting member stop guide over the plurality of guide wires and relative to the outer pocket portions of the reference pocket includes positioning the second cutting member stop guide over the plurality of guide wires such that the central aperture is positioned over the central guide wire and projections extending from a bone engaging side of the second cutting member stop guide are received in the outer pocket portions.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein using the central guide wire and central aperture to guide the first cutting member to form an inner pocket portion of the reference pocket includes advancing the first cutting member relative to the second cutting member stop guide until a stop collar on the first cutting member engages an outer surface of the central aperture opposite the bone engaging side of the second cutting member stop guide.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein using the central guide wire and central aperture to guide the first cutting member to form an inner pocket portion of the reference pocket includes forming the inner pocket portion to have a depth relative to an outer surface of the distal end of the femur less than a corresponding depth of the outer pocket portions of the reference pocket.
14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
removing the second cutting member stop guide over the plurality of guide wires;
removing the plurality of guide wires; and
locating a second guide relative to the reference pocket such that a pair of outer projections on a bone engaging side of the second guide are positioned in the outer pocket portions of the reference pocket and an inner projection extending from the bone engaging side of the second guide is positioned in the inner pocket portion.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising guiding a second cutting member with the second guide in a first direction relative to the femur to form a bore through the femur.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein guiding a second cutting member with the second guide in a first direction relative to the femur to form a bore through the femur includes guiding the second cutting member at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees relative to a longitudinal axis of the outer and inner pocket portions.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:
providing a posterior one of the pair of outer projections of the second guide with a surface angled at approximately forty-five degrees relative to a longitudinal axis of the outer and inner projections; and
removing the second guide from the femur about the second cutting member while maintaining the second cutting member in the femur such that the second guide is removed from the femur at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees relative to the longitudinal axis of the inner and outer projections and the angled surface of the posterior one of the outer projections facilitates the removal of the second guide.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein guiding a second cutting member with the second guide in a first direction relative to the femur to form a bore through the femur includes:
forming the first bore in the femur with a first end of the second cutting member; and
maintaining the second cutting member in the femur and using the bore formed in the femur to guide the second cutting member in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a pocket in a tibia using a second opposite end of the second cutting member.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising coupling a cutting device to the second end of the second cutting member while maintaining the second cutting member in the femur and forming the tibial pocket approximately perpendicular to a tibial plateau of the tibia.
20. The method of claim 10, further comprising implanting the femoral implant relative to the distal end of the femur such that the femoral implant is positioned in the reference pocket with inner and outer projections of a bone engaging side of the femoral implant being received in the corresponding inner and outer pocket portions of the reference pocket.
21. The method of claim 1, wherein positioning a plurality of guide wires includes positioning three guide wires.
22. A method for repairing a soft tissue or bone defect, comprising:
forming a reference pocket in a distal end of a femur relative to the soft tissue or bone defect, the reference pocket configured to receive a femoral implant;
guiding a first cutting member relative to the reference pocket to form a bore through the femur in a first direction relative to the femur by driving a first end of the first cutting member to form the bore in the femur with a second opposite end of the first cutting member;
maintaining the first cutting member in the femur and using the bore formed in the femur to guide the first cutting member in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a pocket in a tibia;
coupling a proximal end of a fastener implant to the second end of the first cutting member while maintaining the first cutting member in the femur; and
rotatably driving the second end of the first cutting member to drive the fastener implant into the tibia through a bottom of the tibial pocket.
23. The method of claim 22, further comprising inserting a trial tibial bearing in the tibial pocket to gauge a depth of the tibial pocket, the trial tibial bearing engaging the proximal end of the fastener implant and including a central through bore.
24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:
positioning the first end of the first cutting member through the central through bore of the trial bearing and into engagement with the proximal end of the fastener implant; and
rotatably driving the first cutting member via the second end to raise or lower the fastener implant relative to the bottom of the tibial pocket to adjust a height of the trial bearing relative to the tibial pocket while maintaining the first cutting member in the femur.
25. The method of claim 24, further comprising removing the trial tibial bearing and implanting a tibial bearing in the tibial pocket.
26. The method of claim 22, further comprising providing the fastener implant with external threads and a hex drive female coupling extending into the proximal end and configured to engage a complementary hex drive portion of the first end of the first cutting member.
27. A method for repairing a soft tissue or bone defect, comprising:
forming a reference pocket in a distal end of a femur relative to the soft tissue or bone defect, the reference pocket configured to receive a femoral implant;
guiding a first cutting member relative to the reference pocket to form a bore through the femur in a first direction relative to the femur by driving a first end of the first cutting member to form the bore in the femur with a second opposite end of the first cutting member; and
maintaining the first cutting member in the femur and using the bore formed in the femur to guide the first cutting member in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a pocket in a tibia by driving the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia using the first end of the cutting member, wherein driving the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia using the first end of the cutting member includes:
selecting a cutting device corresponding to a size of a defect in an articular surface of the tibia;
coupling the cutting device to the first end of the first cutting member;
rotatably driving the cutting member via the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia with the cutting device; and
the method further comprising selecting a tibial bearing having a size corresponding to the selected cutting device and implanting the tibial bearing in the tibial pocket.
28. A method for repairing a soft tissue or bone defect, comprising:
locating a first guide relative to a distal end of a femur;
guiding a first cutting member with the first guide to form a bore through the femur in a first direction relative to the femur by rotatably driving a first end of the first cutting member to form the bore in the femur with a second opposite end of the first cutting member;
removing the first guide from the femur; and
maintaining the first cutting member in the femur and using the bore formed in the femur to guide the first cutting member in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a pocket in a tibia by rotatably driving the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia using the first end of the first cutting member; and
forming a reference pocket in a distal end of a femur relative to the soft tissue or bone defect, the reference pocket configured to receive a femoral implant, wherein locating a first guide relative to a distal end of a femur includes locating a first guide relative to the reference pocket, wherein the first cutting member is rotatably driven at the first end relative to a posterior side of the femur to from the bore in the femur, and the first cutting member is rotatably driven at the second end relative to an anterior side of the femur to form the pocket in the tibia.
29. A method for repairing a soft tissue or bone defect, comprising:
locating a first guide relative to a distal end of a femur;
guiding a first cutting member with the first guide to form a bore through the femur in a first direction relative to the femur by rotatably driving a first end of the first cutting member to form the bore in the femur with a second opposite end of the first cutting member;
removing the first guide from the femur; and
maintaining the first cutting member in the femur and using the bore formed in the femur to guide the first cutting member in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a pocket in a tibia by rotatably driving the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia using the first end of the first cutting member; and
forming a reference pocket in a distal end of a femur relative to the soft tissue or bone defect, the reference pocket configured to receive a femoral implant, wherein locating a first guide relative to a distal end of a femur includes locating a first guide relative to the reference pocket, wherein rotatably driving the second end of the first cutting member to form the pocket in the tibia using the first end of the first cutting member includes:
coupling a drive collar over a cutting portion at the second end of the first cutting member such that the drive collar engages a drive coupling portion of the first cutting member adjacent the cutting portion;
threadably engaging a cutting device to a threaded portion of the first cutting member, the threaded portion being adjacent a cutting tip at a terminal end at the first end of the first cutting member; and
rotatably driving the drive collar and guiding the first cutting member in the second direction to form the tibial pocket with the cutting device.
30. The method of claim 29, wherein rotatably driving a first end of the first cutting member to form the bore in the femur includes attaching a driver coupling to a drive coupling portion of the first cutting member adjacent the threaded portion at the first end.
31. The method of claim 29, further comprising:
positioning a cannulated stop member over a portion of the first cutting member extending from the anterior side of the femur such that a first end of the stop member engages the femur and the second end of the first cutting member extends beyond an opposite second end of the stop member; and
rotatably driving the drive collar and guiding the first cutting member in the second direction relative to the stop member to form the tibial pocket with the cutting device.
32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:
positioning a spacer over the second end of the first cutting member and into engagement with the second end of the stop member;
positioning a stop collar over the second end of the first cutting member and into engagement with the spacer;
fixing the stop collar to the first cutting member and removing the spacer, wherein an axial length of the spacer sets a cutting depth for the tibial pocket; and
rotatably driving the drive collar and guiding the first cutting member in the second direction until the stop collar engages the stop member to form the tibial pocket with the cutting device.
33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:
positioning the tibia until a tibial plateau of the tibia is substantially parallel to the cutting device;
moving the first cutting member in the second direction until the cutting tip engages the tibia before fixing the stop collar to the first cutting member; and
driving the first cutting member in the second direction via the drive collar to form the tibial pocket with the cutting device.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A motion image encoding apparatus for encoding a current image containing an object, the motion image encoding apparatus comprising:
object extraction means for extracting the object contained in the current image from received current image data and outputting object contour data indicating a contour of the extracted object;
predictive encoding means for performing a predictive encoding operation using the current image data, prestored data of a reference image, and control points of meshes which divide one of the current image and the reference image, and generating motion information relating to the control points, differential data between the current image and the reference image, and predictive image data;
object difference generator means for selecting differential data in an object region among the differential data supplied from the predictive encoding means to encode the selected differential data based on the object contour data output from the object extraction means, and outputting the selected differential data and the encoded differential data; and
adder means for receiving and adding the predictive image data output from the predictive encoding means and the selected differential data output from the object difference generator means to produce image data of an addition result, and updating the reference image data prestored in the predictive encoding means using the image data of the addition result.
2. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said predictive encoding means performs predictive encoding using spatial transformation to generate the predictive image data.
3. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said predictive encoding means comprises:
a memory for storing reference image data;
a mesh generator for determining regular meshes having vertices located in the object region of the current image as control points among the meshes for dividing the entire image into a predetermined size, based on the object contour data from said object extraction means and outputting mesh data representing determined regular meshes;
a motion estimation and compensation portion for generating the motion information according to the motion estimation with respect to the reference image of the control points, and the predictive image data whose motion of the control points is compensated, using the reference image data stored in said memory and the mesh data output from said mesh generator; and
a differential data generator for generating differential data between the current image data and the predictive image data.
4. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said mesh generator comprises:
a block former for outputting image block data representing a plurality of blocks each having a predetermined size obtained by dividing the current image with respect to the received current image data;
a block selector for selecting the image block data containing the image data of the object region determined by the object contour data among the image block data output from said block former, and outputting the selected image block data;
an object image composer for composing an object image by merging the image blocks of the selected image block data; and
a mesh composer for determining vertices contained in the object image constituted by the object image composer among vertices of a plurality of grids which divide the entire image in size, as control points, and determining the grids having the control points as rectangular meshes.
5. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said mesh composer outputs the mesh data representing regular triangular meshes obtained from the rectangular meshes.
6. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said regular triangular mesh is obtained by dividing the mesh at a diagonal direction of 45 or 45 based on data similarity between the control points of each regular rectangular mesh.
7. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said predictive encoding means comprises:
a memory for storing reference image data;
a mesh generator for determining irregular meshes having vertices located in the reference image as control points using the reference image data stored in said memory and outputting mesh data representing the determined irregular meshes;
a motion estimation and compensation portion for generating the motion information according to the motion estimation with respect to the current image of the control points, and the predictive image data whose motion of the control points is compensated, using the current image data and the mesh data output from said mesh generator; and
a differential data generator for generating differential data between the reference image data and the predictive image data.
8. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said mesh generator generates the mesh data representing the irregular meshes generated by irregular triangular mesh representation based on adaptive control removal.
9. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said object difference generator means performs orthogonal transform coding with respect to the selected differential data.
10. The motion image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said object difference generator means comprises:
a differential data encoder for s electing the differential data of the object region determined by the object contour data among the differential data output from said predictive encoding means, and encoding the selected differential data and the object contour data, to output the encoded differential data and the encoded object contour data; and
a differential data decoder for decoding the encoded differential data output from said differential encoder and outputting the selected differential data.
11. A motion image decoding apparatus for decoding an output of a motion image encoding apparatus, the motion image decoding apparatus comprising:
object contour restoring means for decoding received encoded object contour data and restoring object contour data indicating a contour of an object contained in a current image;
differential data decoding means for decoding received encoded differential data and outputting differential data;
motion compensation decoding means for performing a motion compensation operation using data of the object contour, prestored data of a reference image, control points of meshes which divide one of the object contour and the reference image, and motion information relating to the control points; and
adder means for adding the predictive image data selected by the object contour data and the differential data to produce image data of an addition result, and updating the reference image data prestored in the motion compensation decoding means using the image data of the addition result.
12. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said differential data decoding means performs orthogonal transform decoding with respect to the encoded differential data.
13. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said motion compensation decoding means performs motion compensation using spatial transformation to generate the predictive image data.
14. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said motion compensation decoding means comprises:
a memory for storing reference image data;
a mesh generator for determining meshes having vertices located in the object region determined by the object contour data output from said object contour restoring means as control points among the meshes by dividing the entire image into a predetermined size, and outputting mesh data representing the determined meshes and the object contour data; and
a motion compensation portion for generating the predictive image data whose motion is compensated with respect to the reference image of the control points, using the received motion information, the reference image data stored in said memory and the mesh data.
15. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the mesh data output from said mesh generator contains the position information of the vertices of the determined meshes.
16. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said mesh generator outputs mesh data relating to the regular rectangular meshes.
17. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said motion image decoding means comprises:
a memory for storing reference image data;
a mesh generator for determining meshes for dividing the reference image of the object region determined by the object contour data among the reference image data stored in said memory and outputting mesh data representing determined meshes; and
a motion estimation and compensation portion for generating the predictive image data whose motion is compensated with respect to the reference image of the control points of the determined meshes, using the received motion information, the reference image data stored in the memory, and the mesh data.
18. The motion image decoding apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said mesh generator generates the mesh data representing irregular meshes generated by irregular triangular mesh representation based on adaptive control point removal with respect to the reference image of the object region.