Importance

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Abstract

A spine-stabilization implant has a one-piece shell with bone-tapping screw threads on its outside surface. The screw threads are longitudinally interrupted by several end-to-end flutes distributed in parallel around the circumference. Bone-growth access windows are provided at several locations through the flutes. Such construction gives the spine-stabilization implant a hexagonal cross-section with a hollow central core. A drive tool can be slipped into the back end. After spreading two adjacent vertebrae as much as the interconnecting tissues will allow, a bore is made by a surgeon during an operation into the inter-vertebral space of a patient's spine, e.g., deep into the disc. The drive tool is then used to push the spine-stabilization implant down the bore and into the inter-vertebral space. The tool is then twisted such that the bone-tapping screw threads cut into and lock onto the opposite surfaces of the adjacent vertebrae. The tool is then withdrawn. Morselized bone is packed into the spine-stabilization implant to promote new bone growth that will fuse together the opposite surfaces of the adjacent vertebrae.

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First Claim