Claims
- 1. A vertebral cage having a front wall terminating at both lateral sides in a side wall, and a rear wall terminating at both lateral sides, said side walls curving so as to join said lateral sides of said rear wall to provide a single continuous exterior surface, said cage further including a center opening and said front wall including at least two angled screw passages each having an access opening defining a plane co-planar with the exterior surface.
- 2. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 1 wherein the front wall, the rear wall and the side walls together define a top edge and a bottom edge each having a high friction surface.
- 3. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 2 wherein said high friction surface is a toothed surface.
- 4. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 3 wherein said toothed surface is inclined toward the rear wall of the cage.
- 5. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 1 wherein the front wall further includes at least one recess for the implantation of the cage.
- 6. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 1 wherein the front wall includes three angled passages.
- 7. A vertebral cage as set forth in claims 6 wherein two of the inferior passages have a longitudinal axis that intersects the center opening toward an inferior direction of the cage and one of the passages have a longitudinal axis that intersects the center opening toward.
- 8. A vertebral cage as set forth in claim 1 wherein the screw passages include internal threads.
- 9. An orthopedic implant having an internally threaded to form a female thread recess for a fixation member, and a fixation member having external locking threads to form a mating male thread which correspond to the internal threads, wherein the internal threads and the external thread have the same pitch, but the major diameter of the internal threads is larger than the major diameter of the external threads and the depth of the spiral face of the internal thread is greater than the depth of the spiral face of the external thread so as to permit the axial translation of the fixation member in the passage.
- 10. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 9 wherein the locking thread of the male thread form has a first profile and the locking thread of the female thread form has a second profile and wherein the first profile is substantially smaller than the second profile.
- 11. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 10 wherein the width of the first thread profile is from about 50% to about 85% of the width of the second thread profile.
- 12. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 11 wherein the width of the first thread profile is from about 55% to about 75% of the width of the second thread profile.
- 13. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 12 wherein the width of the first thread profile is from about 60% to about 70% of the width of the second thread profile.
- 14. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 13 wherein the width of the first thread profile is about ⅔ of the width of the second thread profile.
- 15. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 9 wherein the longitudinal distance need to achieve one full rotation of thread spiral is the same for the male and female locking threads.
- 16. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 15 wherein the depth of thread engagement of the male thread is from about 70% to 98% of the depth of the corresponding female thread.
- 17. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 16 wherein the depth of thread engagement of the male thread is from about 80% to 95% of the depth of the corresponding female thread.
- 18. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 17 wherein the depth of thread engagement of the male thread is from about 85% to 95% of the depth of the corresponding female thread.
- 19. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 9 wherein the fixation member has a longitudinal screw area having a first section and a second section, the first section having a cancellous thread with a symmetrical cross sectional shape and a sharp spiral edge, and the second section having a symmetrical trapezoidal cross sectional shape.
- 20. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 19 wherein the second section has a trapezoidal cross sectional shape having a front thrust surface with an angle of from about 40° to about 80°.
- 21. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 20 wherein the second section has a trapezoidal cross sectional shape having a front thrust surface with an angle of from about 50° to about 70°.
- 22. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 21 wherein the second section has a trapezoidal cross sectional shape having a front thrust surface with an angle of from about 55° to about 65°.
- 23. An orthopedic implant as set forth in claim 22 wherein the transverse plane of the spiral face is flat and less than 0.04 inches deep.
- 24. An orthopedic implant having an internally threaded recess to form a female thread for a fixation member and a fixation member having external locking threads to form a mating male thread which corresponds to the internal threads; wherein the external locking threads have a first profile which is smaller than the corresponding second profile of the female locking thread.
- 25. An orthopedic implant 24 wherein the width of the thread profile is from about 50% to about 85% of the corresponding thread profile of the female thread.
- 26. An orthopedic implant 25 wherein the width of the thread profile is from about 60% to about 70% of the corresponding thread profile of the female thread.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This patent application is based upon U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/356,373, filed Feb. 12, 2002
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60356373 |
Feb 2002 |
US |