IMPROVED METHODS, TOOLS AND DEVICES FOR SPINAL FIXATION

摘要

An improved method for spinal rod insertion includes the following steps. First, providing a U-shaped hook tool comprising a hollow tubular U-shaped body having opposite and parallel to each other first and second legs. Next, inserting the open end of the first leg into a first location of a first vertebra and pushing the hook tool along an arc-shaped path until the open end of the first leg exits through a second location of an adjacent second vertebra, thereby placing the open end of the first leg above the second vertebra and the open end of the second leg above the first vertebra and the common end in the intervertebral space between the first and second vertebras. Next, providing a spinal stabilization rod comprising first and second ends. Next, providing a folded flexible wire comprising first and second open ends at the front end and a closed loop end at the back end. The closed loop end is attached to the first end of the spinal stabilization rod. Next, inserting the first and second open ends of the folded flexible wire into the open end of the second leg, threading the folded flexible wire through the tubular U-shaped body and exiting the first and second open ends of the flexible wire through the open end of the first leg. Next, removing the U-shaped tool from the first and second vertebral locations leaving behind the threaded flexible wire and then pulling the first and second open ends of the flexible wire thereby causing the first end of the spinal stabilization rod to be inserted into the first location of the first vertebra, to be pulled through the intervertebral space and to be placed onto the second location of the second vertebra.