Spinal stabilization unit for treating spinal pathologies in patient, has anchoring system with anchors to cooperate with arms of coupler to attach coupler to bone, where one arm is connected to body of coupler at connection

摘要

The unit has a flexible coupler with a body portion and arms located at opposed ends of the coupler. A range-of-motion limiting mechanism controls an amount of bending, an amount of compression, and an amount of extension of the coupler. An anchoring system has bone anchors to cooperate with the arms of the flexible coupler to attach the coupler to bone. One of the arms is connected to the body of the flexible coupler at a threaded connection. The bone anchors are attached to vertebrae (2, 4). Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a method for treating spine (2) a method of implanting a spinal stabilization unit.