Offset Window Spinal Delivery Device Medial Implant Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical devices for delivering interbody implants to the intervertebral space often have a large profile, require excessive bone removal, or do not utilize the easiest pathway, leading to increased operating time and potential complications such as bone decompression and tissue retraction.
Innovation Solution
A delivery device comprising an elongate tube with a channel and a window offset from its longitudinal axis, allowing for medial delivery of interbody implants, along with a pusher shaft that converts longitudinal force into lateral force for deployment through the window, and expandable fingers for engaging endplates, enabling bilateral implant insertion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If current delivery devices are used to deliver interbody implants, then the implants can be delivered to the intervertebral space, but the devices have a large profile requiring excessive bone removal and tissue retraction
Solution Approach 1:
The delivery device changes the delivery dimension from lateral to medial by utilizing the intervertebral foramen pathway. The tube is inserted through the foramen and positions the implant medially within the intervertebral space, avoiding the need for lateral bone removal and reducing tissue retraction requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The delivery system is divided into separate functional components: a tube for access, a pusher shaft for implant advancement, and an offset window for implant deployment. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function, enabling a smaller overall profile while maintaining delivery capability.
2Ease of manufacture
If lateral delivery of interbody implants is used, then the implants can be delivered to the intervertebral space, but more bone must be removed to accommodate the delivery device
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of delivering the implant laterally from the usual surgical approach, the device inverts the delivery pathway by accessing the intervertebral space through the intervertebral foramen from a medial direction. This reversal of the delivery route eliminates the need for extensive lateral bone removal.
3Productivity
If interbody devices are delivered individually, then each implant can be placed precisely, but more operating room time is required
Solution Approach 1:
The delivery device combines multiple implant delivery capabilities into a single integrated system. The tube can accommodate multiple implants, and by manipulating the pusher shaft and tube, both implants can be delivered through the same access pathway in sequence, reducing operating room time while maintaining precise placement control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution reduces the need for bone removal, facilitates more efficient and minimally invasive procedures by allowing medial delivery and bilateral implant placement, thereby reducing operating time and complications.
Implementation Method 1
The angled surface may be configured to engage the interbody implant such that a longitudinal force applied to the elongate pusher shaft is converted into a lateral force, the lateral force being normal to the angled surface, and wherein the lateral force pushes the interbody implant through the window into the intervertebral space.
Data Source
AI summary
A delivery device for inserting an interbody implant into an intervertebral space in a patient has an elongate tube with a channel and is sized to fit in an intervertebral space. The elongate tube has a proximal portion, a distal portion, a longitudinal axis, and a window with a longitudinal axis. The window is disposed adjacent the distal portion of the elongate tube and the longitudinal axis of the window is offset from the longitudinal axis of the elongate tube. The channel is sized to receive the interbody implant, and also the channel is configured such that the interbody implant is advanced therealong from the proximal region toward the distal region. The interbody implant is deployed into the intervertebral space from the window.