Spinal Fusion Cage, Method of Design, and Method of Use
OwnerDennis Lee Abernathie, Ferris Michael Pfeifferinventors
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Abstract
A fusion cage of the present invention includes a first housing portion, a second housing portion, and an insert portion adapted to be received therebetween, wherein the geometry of the fusion cage corresponds substantially to the geometry of a void into which the fusion cage is to be inserted. Also described is a novel tool for insertion of a fusion cage and a novel method for designing a fusion cage or other surgical implant for filling a void identified within a patient.
Claims21
A fusion cage comprising
- a first housing portion;
- a second housing portion;
- and
- an insert portion adapted to be received between said first and second housing portions such that said first and second housing portions are held in place by said insert portion, the insert being slidingly engaged by said first and second housing portions,
- wherein an external geometry of said fusion cage corresponds substantially to a geometry of a void in which said fusion cage is to be inserted.
The fusion cage according to claim one wherein said insert portion defines an interior space therein for allowing bone growth within said interior space.
A tool for inserting a fusion cage into a space between adjacent vertebrae, the tool comprising:
- a shaft portion having a first end and a second end and an upper and lower surface and having an interior space therein, the interior space extending substantially along a longitudinal axis thereof;
- a plunger portion within said interior space, said plunger portion being slidingly engaged with said shaft portion;
- an upper tab portion fixedly attached to an upper edge of said second end of said shaft;
- a lower tab portion fixedly attached to a lower edge of said second end of said shaft;
- at least one first post portion fixedly attached to said upper tab portion, said first post portion sized and shaped to engage an aperture of a housing portion of a fusion cage;
- and
- at least one second post portion fixedly attached to said lower tab portion, said second post portion sized and shaped to engage an aperture of a housing portion of a fusion cage,
- wherein said plunger portion is adapted to releasably engage an insert portion of a fusion cage.
A method of designing a surgical implant, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) imaging a void to be filled by a surgical implant;
- b) identifying a geometry of said void;
- and
- c) designing a surgical implant having a geometry, at least a portion of the geometry of the surgical implant being substantially the same as at least a portion of the geometry of said void.
A method of designing a surgical implant, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) identifying a void to be filled by a surgical implant;
- b) creating at least one virtual image of the void using a computer imaging technique;
- c) creating a three-dimensional solid model of the void using the at least one virtual image of the void created in step b), above;
- d) identifying surfaces of the three-dimensional model that are normal to a patient's anatomy;
- e) extracting using a computer program the normal surfaces identified in step d), above;
- f) repeating steps a through e, above, iteratively a predetermined number of times to acquire surface data from a desired number of patients;
- g) applying coordinate transformation to the surface data acquired in step f), above, in order to align the surfaces;
- h) interpolating and combining surface data from the surfaces aligned in step g), above, to created one averaged surface;
- g) designing a geometry of a surgical implant based on the average surface created in step h), above.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.