Patent ID: 11931080
Assignee: nan
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A method for rotatably positioning a threaded plug in a bone anchor receiver, method comprising:
providing the bone anchor receiver including a longitudinal axis, a base, an upper portion defining a channel, interior surfaces, exterior side surfaces opposite the interior surfaces, and a helically wound thread form with a splay limiting surface formed at least partially within the interior surfaces, the channel extending between a front planar surface and a back planar surface of the bone anchor receiver and communicating with a top surface defining a top of the bone anchor receiver, the exterior side surfaces including a planar outwardly-facing surface portion being parallel to a plane extending through the channel and to the longitudinal axis and a horizontal curvate instrument engaging groove extending to one of the front or back planar surfaces of the bone anchor receiver; and
providing the threaded plug, the threaded plug comprising a cylindrical body having a central axis, a top surface, and an external surface with a constant diameter extending down to a lower annular edge having the same constant diameter and a helically wound thread form with a splay limiting surface formed on at least a portion of the external surface, a lower end of the thread form extending down so as to be located at least adjacent the lower annular edge, the annular edge being adjacent a most bottom surface on the cylindrical body, the thread form of the threaded plug having a leading surface and a trailing surface extending outwardly with respect to the central axis of the cylindrical body of the threaded plug, the thread form integrally formed with the external surface of the cylindrical body at a base thereof and having a first width at the base, and a crest having a cylindrical surface parallel to the central axis, the leading and trailing surfaces of the thread form defining a second width that is less than the first width at a position that is spaced radially outward with respect to the base, the leading surface of the thread form sloping upwardly and outwardly toward the top surface of the cylindrical body and the trailing surface of the thread form sloping upwardly and outwardly toward the top surface of the cylindrical body defining the splay limiting surface;
positioning the threaded plug within the channel of the bone anchor receiver; and
rotatably engaging the threaded plug with the helically wound thread form of the bone anchor receiver,
wherein, when the bone anchor receiver is in a locked configuration with the threaded plug, the threaded plug does not extend over any part of the top surface defining the top of the bone anchor receiver.