Appeal No. 97-0933
Application No. 08/200,118
femoral stem and a bolt for bolting the stem to an
articulating component, and that the bolt have a shaft
“offset” from the head of the bolt. The term “offset” is
defined in the specification as meaning that the position of
the head of the bolt is spaced from the longitudinal axis of
the shaft portion of the bolt (page 3). The effect of this is
to displace laterally the longitudinal axis of the bolt shaft
with respect to that of the bolt head. The purpose of the
offset is to allow the femoral stem to be adjusted to align
with the axis of the bone into which it is to be inserted, by
the use of a bolt having the appropriate amount of offset.
This is illustrated in Figure 3.
Slamin, which was cited by the appellants as prior art in
their specification, discloses a modular knee prosthesis which
has much in common with the appellants’ invention. Like the
appellants, Slamin wishes to adjust the femoral stem to align
with the bone into which it will be installed. However,
Slamin is concerned with changing the angle of the stem and
not its offset. This reference therefore teaches using bolts
in which the shafts are at an angle to the heads, so that
selection of a proper bolt results in the femoral stem being
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Last modified: November 3, 2007