Surgical access system and related methods
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for accessing a surgical target site and related methods, involving an initial distraction system for creating an initial distraction corridor, and an assembly capable of distracting from the initial distraction corridor to a secondary distraction corridor and thereafter sequentially receiving a plurality of retractor blades for retracting from the secondary distraction corridor to thereby create an operative corridor to the surgical target site, both of which may be equipped with one or more electrodes for use in detecting the existence of (and optionally the distance and/or direction to) neural structures before, during, and after the establishment of an operative corridor to a surgical target site.
-
Citations
60 Claims
-
1-15. -15. (canceled)
-
16. A method of accessing a spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas surgical approach, comprising the steps of:
-
affixing a first retractor blade introduced to said spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas approach such that said first retractor blade is positioned along a posterior aspect of said spinal target site and fixed relative to said spinal target site; and moving a second retractor blade introduced to said spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas approach relative to said affixed first retractor blade such that an operative corridor is established between said first and second retractor blades to said spinal target site. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A method of accessing a spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas surgical approach, comprising the steps of:
-
introducing a first retractor blade and a second retractor blade to said spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas surgical approach such that said first retractor blade is positioned along a posterior aspect of said spinal target site; affixing said first retractor blade relative to said spinal target site through the use of an extension element extending from said first retractor blade into said spinal target site; and moving said second retractor blade relative to said affixed first retractor blade such that an operative corridor is established between said first and second retractor blades to said spinal target site. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
-
-
46. A method of accessing a spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas surgical approach, comprising the steps of:
-
introducing a first retractor blade to said spinal target site via a lateral, trans-psoas surgical approach such that said first retractor blade is positioned along a posterior aspect of said spinal target site; affixing said first retractor blade relative to said spinal target site through the use of a first extension element extending from said first retractor blade into said spinal target site; moving said second retractor blade relative to said affixed first retractor blade such that an operative corridor is established between said first and second retractor blades to said spinal target site; and affixing said second retractor blade relative to said spinal target site through the use of a second extension element extending from said second retractor blade into said spinal target site. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
-
Specification