Method of distracting vertebral bones
AssigneeThird Millennium Engineering, LLC
InventorsJames D. Ralph, Steven Tatar, Thomas J. Errico
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A surgical treatment for distracting vertebral bodies to their proper anatomical spacing including sequentially inserting and removing a series of progressively wider cylindrical spacer elements into the intervertebral space between adjacent vertebral bones until the distance between the vertebral bones is anatomically appropriate.
Claims18
A surgical treatment for distracting vertebral bodies to their proper anatomical spacing comprising sequentially inserting and removing a series of progressively wider cylindrical spacer elements into the intervertebral space between adjacent vertebral bones until the distance between the vertebral bones is anatomically appropriate.
A method for placing a spinal column in a desired configuration, comprising:
- exposing an intervertebral space between adjacent vertebral bones;
- and
- distracting the space by sequentially inserting therein and subsequently removing therefrom a plurality of intervertebral spacers, each having a pre-determined thickness, the thicknesses incrementally increasing from one spacer to another at an increment acceptable for safely distracting the space to a desired distance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.