Sacroiliac joint fixation and fusion implants
AssigneeGlobus Medical, Inc.
InventorsDavid Peretz, Robert Choh Fleming, Weston Carpenter, Andrew Fluck, Caelan Allen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Bone implants, assemblies, and methods thereof. The implants may include a tulip head and a bone fastener including a screw shank with bone threads, a distal tip configured to facilitate insertion into bone, and a proximal end having a screw head receivable in the tulip head. The screw shank may define one or more longitudinal windows and/or helical cuts filled with a lattice structure that acts as a scaffold for bone healing and bone interdigitation. The bone fastener, or a portion thereof, may be 3D printed, for example, using an additive laser powder bed fusion process to provide the integrated lattice structure.
Claims4
A method for stabilizing a sacroiliac joint, the method comprising:
- providing an implant having a screw shank with bone threads, the screw shank defining first and second longitudinal windows extending therethrough that are staggered and shifted longitudinally and rotationally relative to one another, the screw shank further defining a helical cut that has a pitch greater than a pitch of the bone threads such that the helical cut interrupts at least some of the bone threads, wherein the first and second longitudinal windows and the helical cut are filled with a lattice structure that acts as a scaffold for bone healing and bone interdigitation;
- accessing a sacrum and/or ilium of a patient;
- and
- inserting the implant across the sacroiliac joint such that once the implant is fully seated, the first and second longitudinal windows engage with the sacrum and ilium, respectively, thereby traversing the sacroiliac joint at final placement to increase the likelihood of fusion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.