Acumed is pleased to announce that it has reached a resolution of a patent infringement dispute involving Acumed’s US Patent No. 6,030,162 and the Skeletal Dynamics REDUCT Headless Compression Screws (Acumed LLC v. Skeletal Dynamics LLC, Case No. 3:15-CV-01581, filed in US District Court for the District of Oregon). As part of the settlement, Skeletal Dynamics has agreed to license Acumed’s patent for the remainder of its term.
The patent pertains to the design of one of Acumed’s flagship products, the Acutrak® Headless Compression Screw. Introduced in 1994, Acutrak is the original fully threaded headless compression screw with continuously variable thread pitch.
The unique, continuously variable thread pitch ensures each screw rotation threads new bone along the Acutrak screw’s entire length. As each successive individual thread advances faster than the trailing thread counterpart, the conical shape becomes seated into bone. This radial expansion of the screw threads, combined with their axial advancement, creates the ability to reduce and compress bone fragments without a traditional screw head.
In this way, Acutrak technology overcame the limitations of conventional bone screws that could not pass threads across a fracture site to create compression. By allowing each thread along the entire length of the screw to aid in reduction and compression, compression can be maintained as the threads cross the fracture site.[1]
Traditional bone screws have a narrow window of compression. The Acutrak screw has a larger window of compression than traditional screws due to the additive property of each thread providing compression. Mechanical studies show that the Acutrak screw provides the greatest push-out force, highest amount of retained compression after cyclic loading, and highest resistance to torsional loading compared to AO and Herbert screws in cadaveric and synthetic bone material.[2]
Backed by 25 years of clinical data and referenced in more than 100 studies in peer-reviewed journals, the Acutrak family of screws has demonstrated efficacy in hand, wrist, foot, and ankle applications.
