Vertebral Fusion Device With Granular Bone Material
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vertebral fusion devices face challenges in achieving primary stabilization and effective bone fusion due to issues such as stiffness in cage-type devices, foreign body reactions, and residual mobility with interspinous devices, which hinder the fusion process and require additional stabilization means like screws and rods.
Innovation Solution
A vertebral fusion device featuring a plastically deformable granular osteosynthesis material within a hollow container body that allows direct contact with vertebral portions, enabling axial compliance and compression to stimulate bone fusion, while being implanted minimally invasively without screws or plates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a stiff cage element is used to provide structural support, then the device can maintain its shape and provide initial stabilization, but the loads are applied to the cage element instead of the granular bone material, preventing bone fusion stimulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible net cage element made of woven material that can deform under load. This flexible structure allows the granular bone material inside to bear the mechanical loads directly, stimulating bone fusion, while the net cage provides containment and gradual structural support as the bone integrates. The flexible shell approach resolves the contradiction by eliminating the stiff cage that would shield the bone material from necessary mechanical stimulation.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a closed cage element is used to contain the granular bone material, then the material is contained securely, but the fusion between the granular bone material and the vertebral bodies is difficult to obtain
Solution Approach 1:
The net cage element functions as a flexible shell that contains the granular bone material while allowing direct contact between the bone material and vertebral bodies through its open weave structure. The flexible membrane-like net provides containment security while maintaining porosity for bone ingrowth and fusion, resolving the contradiction between secure containment and fusion achievement.
Solution Approach 2:
The net cage element has an inherently porous structure with interconnected openings that allow the granular bone material to contact the vertebral bodies directly. This porous configuration enables bone ingrowth through the cage structure while maintaining material containment, simultaneously achieving both secure containment and effective bone fusion.
3Strength
If an excessive amount of polymer is used to create a stiff structure, then the device can provide structural support, but it triggers foreign body reactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces excessive polymer material with a flexible net cage structure made from biocompatible woven material. This flexible shell provides the necessary structural support through its geometric configuration rather than material stiffness, significantly reducing the amount of foreign material present and thereby minimizing foreign body reactions while maintaining structural integrity.
4Stability of the object's composition
If interspinous fusion devices are used to limit flexion-extension movement, then some stabilization is provided, but residual lateral bending and torsion movements remain, hindering fusion
Solution Approach 1:
The vertebral fusion device is designed as a multi-functional system that simultaneously addresses multiple movement restrictions. The net cage element containing granular bone material provides stabilization against flexion-extension, lateral bending, and torsion movements through its three-dimensional structure and bone fusion promotion, making it a universal solution that eliminates residual mobility in all planes rather than limiting only flexion-extension.
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 provides primary stabilization, promotes bone fusion by applying loads directly to the granular material, reduces residual mobility, and is easier to manufacture and implant, improving spinal stability and patient comfort.
Implementation Method 1
the container laterally contains the granular osteosynthesis material and makes it possible a plastic deformation thereof in an axial direction between the two open end portions until the granular osteosynthesis material forms a continuous pillar
Implementation Method 2
the side wall arranged to yield along the axial direction following the plastic deformation of the granular osteosynthesis material
Data Source
AI summary
A vertebral fusion device having a support element configured for insertion between two corresponding vertebral portions of two adjacent vertebrae, such as spinous processes and transverse processes, or joint surfaces of the vertebral bodies or of the facets, comprising a granular osteosynthesis material, preferably in cortico-spongeous chips made of bone bank human bone, which is plastically deformable, and a hollow container body that contains the osteosynthesis material and has a side wall, for example made with a network of interlaced meshes, and two open end portions to allow a contact between the osteosynthesis material and respective surfaces of said corresponding vertebral portions, so that the osteosynthesis material is kept in a compressed condition between said corresponding vertebral portions and receives mechanical loads therefrom which promote osteosynthesis.