Locking mechanism for a cervical fixation plate

Abstract

A cervical plate includes a body defining one or more bone screw openings sized and configured to receive the shank of a bone screw therethrough with the head of the bone screw seated within the opening. A locking post extends from the body adjacent one or more of the bone screw openings with a locking element rotatably mounted thereon. The locking element includes a wing corresponding to each of the bone screw openings, with each wing sized to overlap a portion of the bone screw opening when the locking element is in a locking orientation and the head of a bone screw is seated within the bone screw opening. A swaged interface between the locking post and the locking element retain the locking element on the body while permitting the locking element to be rotated from a locking orientation to an orientation in which the bone screw openings are unimpeded to permit introduction of a bone screw.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.