Posterior intervertebral disc inserter and expansion techniques
AssigneeDePuy Synthes Products, Inc.
InventorsJonathan Bellas, Seung-kyu Daniel Kwak, Michael J. O'Neil, John Riley Hawkins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Insertion and expansion devices for use in inserting motion discs, and associated methods of use.
Claims20
A method of implanting an intervertebral implant comprising the steps of:
- inserting the intervertebral implant into an intervertebral disc space;
- pivotally moving a first leg with respect to a body between a first orientation whereby a central leg axis of the first leg is angularly offset from a longitudinal axis of the body, and a second orientation whereby the central leg axis extends substantially in a common direction as the longitudinal axis,
- wherein the first leg has a first external surface that is concave along an entirety of the first external surface, a second external surface that is opposite the first external surface and is convex along an entirety of the second external surface, and the second external surface is spaced from the first external surface along a central leg axis of the first leg, and in the second orientation the leg defines a distance from the first external surface to the second external surface along the central leg axis, the distance less than a width of the body measured along a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.
A method of implanting an intervertebral implant that includes a body having endplates spaced from each other along a transverse direction, a longitudinal axis and proximal and distal endportions spaced from each other along the longitudinal axis, wherein the body has a body width along a direction perpendicular to both the longitudinal axis and the transverse direction, the method comprising the steps of:
- inserting the intervertebral implant into an intervertebral disc space;
- pivotally moving a first leg about a proximal endportion of the body between a first orientation whereby the first leg is substantially inline with the longitudinal axis of the body to provide a first implant footprint, to a second orientation whereby the first leg is angularly offset with respect to the longitudinal axis of the body so as to produce a second implant footprint that is different than the first implant footprint,
- wherein when the leg is in the first orientation, 1) the first leg has a leg width along the direction perpendicular to both the longitudinal axis and the transverse direction, and 2) the leg width along an entirety of the first leg is less than the body width along an entirety of the body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.