Extremities
PONTiS Catheter and Funnel
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PONTiS Catheter
The PONTiS catheter is a hollow, flexible polyethylene catheter with a lumen throughout. The catheter gently increases in diameter from one end to the other.
The narrow end is slightly pointed but blunt for easy entry into the fibro-osseous tunnel.
THREADER RETRIEVAL LOOP
When a suture other than the PONTiS multi-filament stainless steel is used, it will not pass through the lumen of the catheter. To facilitate this, a threader loop is provided which is passed through the lumen of the catheter. The suture is then placed in the loop of the threader, leaving enough slack to allow the suture to be withdrawn through the catheter to the far end.
Before doing so, the funnel is placed over the end of the tendon and the suture is threaded through the funnel in exactly the same manner as described above. This allows passage of the tendon using the catheter and funnel.
PONTiS Funnel
The PONTiS funnel is a thin, flexible, plastic funnel approximately 1cm in length that facilitates passage of the tendon into the pulley system. The funnel has a hole in the small end so that once the suture has been attached to the cut end of the tendon, it is passed through the funnel, first the wide end and then the small end. The funnel is then placed over the cut end of the tendon.
After the suture is passed through the funnel, the tip of the funnel is placed inside the lumen of the catheter and held there by clamping the suture at the far end of the catheter. Using this maneuver, the tendon covered with the funnel will not catch on the pulley and will be easy to deliver.