Patent ID: 11903841
Assignee: WARSAW ORTHOPEDIC, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  B | IPC A  B

Claim 3:
4. An additive-manufacturing system for forming a spinal implant, comprising
a dispensing subsystem including:
at least one control arm connected to at least one dispensing component, the at least one dispensing component including a lumen configured to dispense printing material; and
a material-actuating subsystem including a provisioning component and at least two material sources, the at least two material sources containing printing material and the provisioning component being configured to control flow of the printing material through the dispensing component;

a robotics subsystem configured to maneuver the at least one dispensing component and
a controller apparatus having a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing in-situ-growing instructions that, when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
selectively control the material-actuating subsystem to pump the printing material to the at least one dispensing component based on the in-situ-growing instructions; and
selectively control the robotics subsystem to maneuver the at least one dispensing component for selectively dispensing the printing material based on the in-situ-growing instructions;

wherein the controller apparatus is further configured to:
selectively control the robotics subsystem to maneuver the lumen of the at least one dispensing component within an interbody space, at least partly, the interbody space being between a first patient vertebra and a second patient vertebra; and
selectively control the dispensing subsystem to selectively deposit the printing material on or adjacent the first vertebra to form a spinal implant;

wherein the spinal implant comprises an outer surface having a channel opening; and
wherein an interior of the implant comprises at least two elongate channels, the two elongate channels connecting to each other and at least one of the two channels extending to the channel opening.