Abstract:
Methods for correcting a deformit in the spine by forming a trans-sacral axial instrumentation/fusion axial bore through vertebral bodies in general alignment with a visualized, anterior axial instrumentation/fusion line in a minimally invasive, low trauma, manner and providing a therapy to the spine employing the axial bore. Curved or relatively straight anterior axial bores are formed from the anterior starting positions. The therapies performed through the axial bores include discoscopy, full and partial discectomy, vertebroplasty, balloon-assisted vertebroplasty, drug delivery, electrical stimulation and various forms of spinal disc cavity augmentation, spinal disc replacement, fusion of spinal motion segments and implantation of radioactive seeds. Axial spinal implants and bone growth materials can be placed into single or multiple parallel or diverging TASIF axial bores to fuse two or more vertebrae, or distract or shock absorb two or more vertebrae.
Abstract:
Disclosed are surgical tools, tool sets and methods for percutaneously accessing and preparing treatment sites within the spine for subsequent treatment procedures. The treatment site may be an inter-vertebral motion segments in the lumbar and sacral regions of the spine. The tool set may comprise introducer tools and bone dilators for accessing and tapping into a targeted site, such as, for example, the anterior surface of the S1 vertebral body. The tool set may also comprise cutters and extractors for preparing the treatment site for subsequent treatment procedures. The tool set may additionally comprise a bone graft inserter, an exchange system, and/or a temporary distraction tool for further preparing the treatment site for subsequent treatment procedures.
Abstract:
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for the provision of spinal therapy to two or more adjacent motion segments accessed through a trans-sacral approach. The spinal therapies include fusion and dynamic stabilization with and without a distraction of the most cephalad motion segment of the two or more adjacent motion segments provided therapy. The disclosure includes methods and apparatus to impart a push distraction to increase the distance between two adjacent vertebrae. Related concepts for the extraction of previously inserted devices and the delivery and removal of plugs for plugging the interior cavities of implantable devices are disclosed.
Abstract:
Disclosed are surgical tools, tool sets and methods for percutaneously accessing and preparing treatment sites within the spine for subsequent treatment procedures. The treatment site may be avertebral motion segments in the lumbar and sacral regions of the spine. The tool set may a retraction device for retracting bowel from a sacrum. The device can induce a collapsible enclosure that defines a chamber. The collapsible enclosure can have a collapsed configuration and an expanded configuration. In some arrangements, the chamber is filled with an inflation media. The expanded configuration defines a working channel positioned between the sacrum and the bowel and extending over or through at least a portion of the device.
Abstract:
A spinal mobility preservation apparatus and methods are disclosed. The spinal mobility preservation apparatus may include a proximal body, an intermediate body, a distal body, and an expandable membrane. The proximal body and the distal body secure the mobility preservation apparatus to adjacent vertebral bodies. At least one of an intermediate body and an expandable membrane secure the proximal body to the distal body and provide a degree of support to a spinal motion segment defined by the adjacent vertebral bodies. A single proximal body and an expandable membrane may also compose a spinal mobility preservation apparatus. The proximal body secured to one of a superior or an inferior vertebral body and the expandable membrane extending into the intervertebral disc space to support the spinal motion segment.
Abstract:
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for the provision of spinal therapy to two or more adjacent motion segments accessed through a trans-sacral approach. The spinal therapies include fusion and dynamic stabilization with and without a distraction of the most cephalad motion segment of the two or more adjacent motion segments provided therapy. The disclosure includes methods and apparatus to impart a push distraction to increase the distance between two adjacent vertebrae. Related concepts for the extraction of previously inserted devices and the delivery and removal of plugs for plugging the interior cavities of implantable devices are disclosed.
Abstract:
The invention provides an implantable spinal distraction/fusion rod with varied thread pitch and diameters along different portions of its length that it is capable of distracting two or more vertebral bodies relative to each other and/or facilitating the procedure of fusing the vertebral bodies together from within the spine. The present invention also provides for methods of using the rod to distract and/or fuse two or more vertebral bodies from within the spine.
Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for providing percutaneous access to the presacral space in a minimally invasive, low trauma, manner. A number of related methods and surgical tool sets form a percutaneous pathway from an incision through the patient's skin adjacent to the coccyx and inserting an elongated guide assembly through the incision to locate the guide assembly against the anterior surface of the sacrum to access a presacral target point. The provision of the percutaneous pathway described herein allows for the introduction of therapeutic devices or media, diagnostic instruments, and/or drug delivery to the presacral space.
Abstract:
Surgical tools, tool sets and methods for percutaneously accessing and preparing treatment sites within the spine. A method of treating the spine, comprising the steps of percutaneously accessing an anterior target site on the surface of the sacrum, forming a lumen from the access site through the sacrum, through a disc and into at least one vertebra, advancing a fusion device comprising a distal portion, a proximal portion and an intermediate portion between the distal and proximal portion through the anterior target site on the surface of the sacrum and into the spine, rotating the distal portion of the device into a superior vertebral body and the proximal portion of the device in an inferior vertebral body to increase a distance between the superior and inferior vertebral bodies, and inserting through a percutaneous access site a posterior column fixation device into the spine.
Abstract:
Disclosed are surgical tools, tool sets and methods for percutaneously accessing and preparing treatment sites within the spine for subsequent treatment procedures. The treatment site may be an inter-vertebral motion segments in the lumbar and sacral regions of the spine. The tool set may comprise introducer tools and bone dilators for accessing and tapping into a targeted site, such as, for example, the anterior surface of the S1 vertebral body. The tool set may also comprise cutters and extractors for preparing the treatment site for subsequent treatment procedures. The tool set may additionally comprise a bone graft inserter, an exchange system, and/or a temporary distraction tool for further preparing the treatment site for subsequent treatment procedures.