METHOD FOR INTERBODY FUSION OF THE SPINE

• US 3,848,601 A
• Filed: 06/14/1972
• Issued: 11/19/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Don E. Poulson, Gabriel W.C. Ma
• Original Assignee: Don E. Poulson, Gabriel W.C. Ma
• Inventors: Ma, Gabriel W. C., Poulson, Don E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pace, Channing L.
• Application Number:
  US05/262,687
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 128/305,310 408/30,68
• US Class Current: 606/86.00A
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/1604 Chisels; Rongeurs; Punches; Stamps
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/1671 for the spine
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/3401 Puncturing needles for the peridural or subarachnoid space or the plexus, e.g. for anaesthesia local anaesthesia A61M19/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/442 Intervertebral or spinal discs, e.g. resilient non-disc-shaped intervertebral inflatable pockets A61F2/441; non-disc-shaped intervertebral fusion implants A61F2/4455
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/447 substantially parallelepipedal, e.g. having a rectangular or trapezoidal cross-section
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/4601 for introducing bone substitute, for implanting bone graft implants or for compacting them in the bone cavity
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/4611 of spinal prostheses
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/2839 Bone plugs or bone graft dowels
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/30261 parallelepipedal
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/448 comprising multiple adjacent spinal implants within the same intervertebral space or within the same vertebra, e.g. comprising two adjacent spinal implants
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/4627 with linear motion along or rotating motion about the instrument axis or the implantation direction, e.g. telescopic, along a guiding rod, screwing inside the instrument
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/4649 Bone graft or bone dowel harvest sites
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2230/0082 parallelepipedal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 408/356 including plunging [single stroke] cutter
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 408/51 Ejector

Abstract

Three units of surgical apparatus for interbody fusion of the spine and method of use. The first unit consists of an intervertebral mortising chisel with the inner drill bit used to remove a block of tissue of specified dimension. The second unit consists of the bone plug cutter with the inner bone plug ejector used to obtain bone plug of the same chosen dimension of the intervertebral mortising chisel unit. The third unit consists of the bone plug injector and the inner bone plug injector rod used to inject bone plug removed from the graft site by the bone plug cutter and placing the bone plug into the bone plug injector where the bone plug can be injected into the space which was originally created by the first unit, the intervertebral mortising chisel.

Claims

1. The method of performing interbody fusion of the spine between an upper and lower vertebra and across a section of the disc comprising the steps of:

producing a parallelpiped shaped cavity in the spine by;

employing a thin walled hollow chisel of rectangular cross section having exterior dimensions corresponding to the desired rectangular cross section of the cavity and the hollow also being of rectangular cross section;

forcing the chisel a desired depth into the spine thereby cutting the sides of the cavity;

inserting a cylindrical drill bit within the hollow of said chisel and drilling out the greater portion of the tissue defined by the hollow of said chisel and then subsequently removing the remainder of said tissue; and

removing the drill bit from said hollow;

inserting into said cavity a bone plug having dimensions equal to the dimensions of said cavity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein during the drilling out step:

removing the drilled out loose material from the cavity by conducting the material through an opening in the side of the chisel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of subsequently removing the remainder of tissue from the cavity is accomplished after removal of the chisel from the cavity.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein prior to the step of inserting:

producing a bone plug by removing bone from another location of the body whErein the cross sectional dimensions of the bone plug is identical in size to the cross sectional dimensions of the cavity.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein after the removing step and prior to the inserting step:

enlarging slightly the cross sectional dimensions of the cavity by forcing a tool within the cavity having exterior dimensions slightly greater than the dimensions of the cavity with the tool having an interior hollow substantially equal to the normal cross sectional dimensions of the cavity;

the inserting of the bone plug into the cavity is accomplished by having the bone plug be located within the tool and then removing the tool from the cavity while maintaining the bone plug within the cavity which causes the bone tissue surrounding the cavity to retract to its initial position and in tight contact with the bone plug.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, including producing a second interbody cavity in a second location of said disc, and inserting into said second cavity a second bone plug of the same size and shape as said second cavity.