Device for straightening and stabilizing the vertebral column

摘要

A device for straightening and stabilizing the vertebral column, particularly for stabilizing broken vertebrae, includes a supporting implant which is plastically expandable by internal pressure. The supporting implant can be placed into the interior of a vertebral body which has been fractured under compression or between adjacent vertebral bodies. A pressure balloon to which pressure fluid can be admitted may be arranged in the interior of the supporting implant for producing the internal pressure.

主权项

1. A device for stabilizing a broken vertebra, the device comprising a hollow-cylindrical, plastically deformable supporting implant that is insertable into an interior of the vertebra, wherein the implant comprises a wire mesh comprising openings, wherein the wires of the mesh extend at an acute angle relative to each other to form adjacent-acutely angled segments that bound a common opening and that open in the same direction, thereby forming said openings between the wires, so as to be plastically radially deformable to deform from an initial non-expanded state to an expanded state to form a hollow space in the interior of the vertebra, wherein in the expanded state the acute angles of the mesh wires are widened, wherein in the expanded state the plastically deformed supporting implant maintains the shape of the implant and stabilizes the vertebra to allow the broken vertebra to heal, and wherein the device is capable of allowing passage of a material from the hollow space in the interior of the vertebra through the openings to the vertebra, said openings being present before the supporting implant is implanted.