Process for fabricating bioactive vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces on a spinal implant

A process for fabricating bioactive vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces on a spinal implant, comprising:

• providing a spinal implant comprising titanium or an alloy of titanium, aluminum, and vanadium having one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces;
• acid-etching or machining the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form macro-scale structural features;
• following the acid etching or machining step, abrasive media blasting the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form micro-scale structural features that overlap the macro-scale structural features, such overlap avoiding undercuts or protruding sharp edges;
• and
• following the abrasive media blasting step, mildly acid-etching the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form nano-scale structural features that overlap the macro-scale structural features and the micro-scale structural features, such overlap avoiding undercuts or protruding sharp edges,
• thereby forming the final and completed bioactive vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces on the spinal implant, provided that the process does not include at any time applying a coating to any of the vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces and does not include at any time embedding surface contaminants into any of the vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces.

A process for fabricating bioactive vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces on a spinal implant, comprising:

• providing a spinal implant comprising titanium or an alloy of titanium, aluminum, and vanadium having one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces;
• acid-etching or machining the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form macro-scale structural features that are roughly spherical in shape and lack undercuts or protruding sharp edges;
• following the acid etching or machining step, abrasive media blasting the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form micro-scale structural features that overlap the macro-scale structural features;
• and
• following the abrasive media blasting step, mildly acid-etching the one or more vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces to form nano-scale structural features that overlap the macro-scale structural features and the micro-scale structural features,
• thereby forming the final and completed bioactive vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces on the spinal implant, provided that the process does not include at any time applying a coating to any of the vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces and does not include at any time embedding surface contaminants into any of the vertebral endplate bone-contacting surfaces,
• wherein the macro-scale features, the micro-scale features, and the nano-scale features are oriented in opposition to the insertion direction of the implant.