Intervertebral prosethetic disc placement and removal systems

A method of placing an intervertebral prosthetic disc with a single placement instrument comprising:

• securing a multipart prosthetic disc to a distal end of a placement instrument by grasping at least a portion of the multipart prosthetic disc between grasping jaws on the placement instrument;
• inserting the prosthetic disc into a disc space of a patient with the placement instrument;
• releasing the prosthetic disc grasping jaws by moving the grasping jaws from a tightened to a released position by an activation mechanism on the placement instrument handle;
• and
• ejecting the prosthetic disc from the grasping jaws with a prosthetic disc ejector on the distal end of the instrument shaft which moves distally with respect to the pair of grasping jaws when the grasping jaws are in the released position and wherein the ejector is configured to contact the prosthetic disc to fully disengage the prosthetic disc from the placement instrument.

An intervertebral prosthetic disc core removal instrument comprising:

• a pair of core removal arms having inner surfaces shaped to correspond substantially to a shape of an outer perimeter of a prosthetic disc core, wherein the arms are each tapered from a thinnest portion at their distal ends to thicker portion at some distance from the distal end such that insertion of the arms between two prosthetic disc plates distracts the plates away from one another to allow the core to be more easily removed;
• and
• an inner shaft connected to the pair of core removal arms;
• an outer shaft movable with respect to the inner shaft and including an activation mechanism for causing the arms to grasp the core for removal.

An intervertebral prosthetic disc core removal instrument comprising:

• a pair of core removal arms having inner surfaces shaped to correspond substantially to a shape of an outer perimeter of a prosthetic disc core;
• a distraction wedge tapered from a thinnest portion at a distal end to thicker portion at some distance from the distal end such that insertion of the distraction wedge between two prosthetic disc plates of the prosthetic disc distracts the plates away from one another to allow the core to be more easily removed;
• and
• a core removal instrument handle connected to the pair of core removal arms and the distraction wedge, the handle configured to move the arms with respect to one another to grasp the core for removal and configured to advance the distraction wedge to distract the plates away from one another to allow the core to be more easily removed.