Lateral retractor system for minimizing muscle damage in spinal surgery

A lateral retraction system for minimizing damage to a patient's muscle fibers and nerve structures when forming a surgical pathway to the patient's spine, comprising:

• a dilator having a narrow body defined by opposing flat surfaces that taper to a distal edge configured for insertion adjacent to an intervertebral disc space at an insertion orientation in which the opposing flat surfaces of the dilator are parallel to a plurality of psoas muscle fibers and at an approximate 45 degree angle to the patient's spine;
• and
• a lateral retractor, including:
• a dual-blade assembly consisting of a pair of blade subassemblies, each having a blade with a planar inner surface and an outer surface, the dual-blade assembly configured to pass proximally-to-distally over the dilator at the insertion orientation such that the planar inner surface of the blade of each of the blade subassemblies contacts one of the opposing flat surfaces of the dilator;
• a rotation assembly operably coupled between the dual-blade assembly and a surgical table, the rotation assembly configured to rotate the dual-blade assembly about a longitudinal center axis of the dilator from the insertion orientation to a rotated orientation in which the planar inner surface of each of the blades is parallel to the intervertebral disc space;
• and
• a lateral retraction assembly operably coupled between the dual-blade assembly and the surgical table, the lateral retraction assembly configured to separate the pair of the blade subassemblies from one another.

A lateral retractor system for forming a surgical pathway to a patient's intervertebral disc space, comprising:

• a dilator having a narrow body defined by opposing longitudinal surfaces extending from a proximal end to a distal end;
• and
• a retractable dual-blade assembly having a pair of opposing blades consisting of two opposing retractable blades, each of the two opposing retractable blades having an opposing inner surface and an opposing outer surface configured to extend from a proximal end to a distal end along two longitudinal sides, the two opposing retractable blades configured for:
• an attached configuration in which the opposing inner surface of each of the two opposing retractable blades uniformly confront the opposing longitudinal surfaces of the dilator, wherein when in the attached configuration the opposing inner surface of each of the two opposing retractable blades are affixed to the dilator symmetrically relative to one another and are in a parallel orientation relative to one another;
• and
• a detached configuration in which the opposing inner surface of each of the two opposing retractable blades are separated from one another, wherein when in the detached configuration the opposing inner surfaces remain in the parallel orientation relative to one another.

A lateral retractor system for forming a surgical pathway to a patient's intervertebral disc space, comprising:

• a dilator having a narrow body defined by opposing longitudinal surfaces extending from a proximal end to a distal end, and the opposing longitudinal surfaces configured to traverse a plurality of fibers of a psoas muscle in an insertion orientation at an insertion angle parallel to a direction of a plurality of fibers of the psoas muscle;
• and
• a retractable dual-blade assembly having a pair of opposing blades, each of the blades having an inner surface and an opposing outer surface configured to extend from a proximal end to a distal end along two longitudinal sides;
• the retractable dual-blade assembly configured to pass proximally-to-distally over the dilator at the insertion orientation in a configuration in which the inner surfaces of each of the opposing blades contacts one of the opposing surfaces extending between the tapered opposing longitudinal surfaces of the dilator;
• and
• a rotation assembly operably coupled to the retractable dual-blade assembly, the rotation assembly configured to rotate the dilator and the retractable dual-blade assembly about a longitudinal center axis of the dilator from the insertion orientation, in which the surfaces of the dilator and the inner surfaces of the blades are disposed parallel to the plurality of the psoas muscle fibers, to a rotated orientation, in which the surfaces of the dilator and the inner surfaces of the blades are disposed parallel to the disc space.