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US 6,966,931 B2Granted
Artificial intervertebral disc with reliable maneuverability
AssigneeTain-Yew Shi
InventorShih-Shing Huang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An artificial intervertebral disc includes an upper retaining member secured to an upper vertebra; a lower retaining member secured to a lower vertebra adjacent to the upper vertebra; and a nucleus member rotatably coupled between the upper and the lower retaining members, with the nucleus member having at least a cushioning filler selected from: gel, foam, elastomers, and shock-absorbing materials filled, formed or pre-formed in the nucleus member for making an artificial intervertebral disc as universally oriented, stably supported, reliably manipulated and minimally invasive.
Claims12
An artificial intervertebral disc comprising:
- an upper retaining member adapted to be secured to an upper vertebra;
- a lower retaining member adapted to be secured to a lower vertebra adjacent to the upper vertebra;
- and
- a nucleus member rotatably coupled to said upper and lower retaining members by a least a coupling;
- said nucleus member including a daughter sac filled with a relatively soft cushioning filler in said daughter sac, and a mother bladder circumferentially encasing said daughter sac and having a relatively harder cushioning filler filled in said mother bladder for resiliently flexibly coupling said upper and lower retaining members;
- whereby said upper retaining member is universally resiliently coupled to said lower retaining member.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.