Spinal Spacer Stabilizer Wedging Action
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing spinal fusion technologies lack optimal multi-dimensional stability, often requiring complex procedures and utilizing components that project externally, leading to issues like spinal extension, graft shifting, and screw loosening, which complicates bone ingrowth fusion and increases the risk of pain and surgical difficulty.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a spacer and stabilizer system where the stabilizer, with a body having spaced walls and a web, is moved from a pre-assembly to an operative relationship by driving a bone screw through the stabilizer and threading it into the bone, providing compressive forces and wedging action to secure the spacer against adjacent vertebrae, ensuring stability and preventing movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional screws are used to secure the spacer to bone portions, then the spacer can be fixed to the bone, but multi-dimensional stability is insufficient and screw loosening occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The stabilizer is divided into multiple functional segments: a body portion with spaced walls, a web connecting the walls, and multiple anchors that can be directed into different bone portions. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function while working together to achieve multi-dimensional stability that a single screw cannot provide.
Solution Approach 2:
The anchors are nested within the stabilizer structure, with each anchor housed in a recess of the stabilizer body. The anchors can be selectively advanced from the stabilizer into the bone portions, allowing for staged insertion and adjustment. This nested configuration enables the stabilizer to maintain stability while allowing controlled deployment of fixation elements.
2Reliability
If complex procedures are used to achieve stable fixation, then spacer stability can be improved, but surgical difficulty and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The stabilizer combines multiple fixation functions into a single integrated device. The body portion with spaced walls provides structural support, the web connects the walls for rigidity, and multiple anchors can be directed into different bone portions simultaneously. This merging of functions into one device simplifies the surgical procedure compared to using multiple separate screws and fixation elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The stabilizer is designed as a multi-functional device that can provide compression forces, prevent spacer migration, and secure the spacer to multiple bone portions simultaneously. The spaced walls can engage with the spacer from opposite sides, while the anchors provide additional fixation to adjacent bone portions, making the device universally applicable for various stabilization needs in a single procedure.
3Reliability
If components project externally from bone portions, then fixation can be achieved, but spinal extension occurs and graft shifting increases
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful protruding elements are extracted from the design. Instead of using external screws that project from the bone and spacer, the anchors are directed into the bone portions through the stabilizer structure, internalizing the fixation mechanism. This eliminates the protruding components that cause spinal extension and graft shifting, while still achieving secure fixation through the internally directed anchors.
Solution Approach 2:
The stabilizer applies preliminary compressive forces and stabilizing actions before the bone graft can shift or before spinal extension occurs. The spaced walls engage with the spacer to prevent migration, and the anchors are positioned to resist extension forces before they can cause harm. This preliminary stabilization prevents the harmful effects from occurring in the first place.
4Stability of the object's composition
If multiple screws are used to achieve rigidity in all dimensions, then spacer stability improves, but device complexity and surgical time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple fixation functions are merged into a single stabilizer device. The spaced walls provide stabilization in one dimension, while the multiple anchors directed into different bone portions provide stabilization in other dimensions. This merging eliminates the need for multiple separate screws while achieving the same multi-dimensional rigidity, reducing device complexity and surgical time.
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 system achieves enhanced stability and secure fixation of the spacer between vertebrae, reducing the risk of graft shifting and screw loosening, thereby facilitating successful bone ingrowth fusion and minimizing surgical complications.
Implementation Method 1
providing compressive forces and wedging action to secure the spacer against adjacent vertebrae
Implementation Method 2
reducing the risk of graft shifting and screw loosening
Data Source
AI summary
Instruments, kits, and methods are disclosed for installing an implant spacer through an incision and down a surgical corridor. The instruments also serve to align a drill guide and align and insert a spacer stabilizer for stabilization of adjacent bone portions. An inserter instrument comprises an elongated guide bar body having a guide portion for aligning instruments with said spacer and for introducing a stabilizer to secure the spacer in a predetermined position between the bone portions. In preferred embodiments a stabilizer implant portion comprising a base wall separated by a retaining member by a web wall is introduced into a pre-bored hole in a bone and secured with a stabilizer anchor extending through a central bore. Included is a retractable graft block for securing graft material within an aperture of a spacer during insertion of the spacer.