Expandable intervertebral spacers

Patent Number: 7655042, issued on 2010/02/02    
Applied on 2004/11/30
Inventor(s): Kevin Foley, Harald Ebner, Mingyan Liu, Charles Branch, Lawrence M Boyd
Assignee: Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc.

Abstract: Laterally expanding vertebral spacer devices are provided for repairing damaged vertebral discs. The vertebral spacer devices maintain the height of a distracted vertebral disc space while providing stability to the spine. In one form of the invention, a vertebral spacer device is provided with a first arm movably coupled to a second arm. The first and second arms are laterally expandable from a first width for insertion into the disc space to a second width after insertion into the disc space. The first and second arms also define a cavity therebetween for placement of bone growth material.