Intervertebral implant
AssigneeSynthes USA, LLC
InventorsJohn Webb, Inga Hafeli-Knothe, Thomas Hafeli, Alfred Benoit
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Abstract
A hollow cylindrical intervertebral implant with a longitudinal axis (3), a top surface (1) and a bottom surface (2), consisting essentially of a ceramic material displaying a maximum porosity of 30 vol. %, the pores of which are filled with air. The implant according to this invention is characterized in that upon primary fusion during the resorption process it equalizes the distance (corresponding to intervertebral disk height) between two vertebrae while providing adequate fusion and is resorbed by the body after a certain amount of time.
Claims22
Intervertebral implant, configured in prismatic or cylindrical form with a longitudinal axis (3), its top surface (1) and bottom surface (2) designed to serve as contact surfaces between the bone and the end plates of two vertebrae, the said intervertebral implant consisting essentially of a porous ceramic material whose porosity is 30 vol. % at the most and whose pores are filled with air, characterized in that the jacket (6) of the intervertebral implant is provided with a three-dimensional surface structure (9).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.