BACKGROUND

An allograft includes bone, tendon, skin, or other types of tissue that is transplanted from one person to another. Allografts are used in a variety of medical treatments, such as knee replacements, bone grafts, spinal fusions, eye surgery, and skin grafts for the severely burned. Allografts come from voluntarily donated human tissue obtained from cadaveric donor-derived, living-related, or living-unrelated donors and can help patients regain mobility, restore function, enjoy a better quality of life, and even save lives in the case of cardiovascular tissue or skin.

Currently, soft tissue debridement from donated, cadaveric human bone is a manually intensive procedure that requires operators/technicians to manipulate metal gouges to repeatedly scrape extraneous adherent soft tissue (e.g., muscle and other non-osseous tissue) from the bone. This process is time consuming. A time-motion study assessing the amount of time required to manually debride human tissue from bone, excluding set-up time, revealed that the mean time to manually debride a human femur is nine minutes, while the mean time to debride a human tibia is seven minutes. The existing process also requires the use of sharp objects, while simultaneously gripping a slippery surface (i.e., bone and soft tissue) and requires operators to make multiple, repetitive hand-arm movements to remove all unnecessary tissue. These repetitive motions can lead to hand-arm related injuries and increase the operator's risk of musculoskeletal disorders resulting from repetitive motion damage, including tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoarthritis, and other pathologies. Such injuries and disorders can affect the mission, bottom line, work productivity, and employee satisfaction and engagement of an allograft processing center or tissue bank.

Others have attempted to provide automated or semi-automated systems and tools for tissue debridement from bone, but these systems present time, safety, sterilization, effluent disposal, and efficiency challenges.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key aspects or essential aspects of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, this Summary is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

One embodiment provides a high-pressure water debridement system for removing soft tissue from a bone segment. The system may include (1) an outer sleeve defining a longitudinal center axis, the outer sleeve having an interior bounded by first and second endcaps; (2) a central shaft disposed along the longitudinal center axis of the outer sleeve and rotatively coupled between the first and the second endcaps, the central shaft configured to receive the bone segment; and (3) one or more high-pressure water nozzles disposed on each side of the outer sleeve. Each of the high-pressure water nozzles may be positioned to impact the bone segment with a high-pressure water stream, wherein when the high-pressure water nozzles are activated and when an actuating force rotates the central shaft relative to the outer sleeve, the bone segment rotates relative to the outer sleeve and oscillates linearly along the longitudinal center axis within a spray zone of the high-pressure water nozzles such that the high-pressure water streams debride the bone segment.

Another embodiment provides a system for soft tissue debridement of a bone segment. The system may include (1) a cylindrical sleeve having an interior bounded by first and second endcaps, the cylindrical sleeve having a drainage port positioned for effluent drainage; (2) a central shaft configured to receive a bone segment, the central shaft disposed along a longitudinal center of the cylindrical sleeve and rotatively coupled between the first and the second endcaps; (3) at least one high-pressure water nozzle disposed on each side of the cylindrical sleeve, each of the high-pressure water nozzles positioned to impact the bone segment with a high-pressure water stream; and (4) a rotational actuator configured to rotate the central shaft and the bone segment relative to the cylindrical sleeve and the high-pressure water nozzles such that when the high-pressure water nozzles are operational, the high-pressure water streams debride the bone segment.

Yet another embodiment provides a method of debriding soft tissue from a cadaveric bone segment using a high-pressure water debridement system including an outer sleeve defining a longitudinal axis and having an interior bounded by an outer wall and first and second endcaps, a central shaft disposed along the longitudinal axis and rotatively coupled between the first and the second endcaps, and a number of high-pressure water nozzles disposed within the outer wall of the outer sleeve. The method may include the steps of (1) affixing the bone segment about the central shaft such that the bone segment is positioned within a spray zone bounded by a first positive stop and a second positive stop; (2) disposing the outer sleeve about the bone segment and the first and the second positive stops such that a first end of the central shaft protrudes from the first endcap and a second end of the central shaft protrudes from the second endcap; (3) rotating the central shaft relative to the first and the second endcaps such that the bone segment rotates relative to the outer sleeve and oscillates linearly along the longitudinal axis within the spray zone; and (4) activating the number of the high-pressure water nozzles such that each of the high-pressure water nozzles directs a high-pressure water stream into the spray zone to debride the bone segment.

Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the technology will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned from practice of the technology.

