Patent ID: 7641657
Filing Date: 2010-01-05
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A surgical operating system for forming a percutaneous pathway from a skin incision generally axially aligned with a series of adjacent vertebrae located within a human lumbar and sacral spine having an anterior aspect, a posterior aspect and an axial aspect, the vertebrae separated by intact or damaged spinal discs, the system comprising: guide means introduced through a skin incision and advanced against the anterior aspect of the sacrum through a presacral space for accessing an anterior position of a sacral vertebra that is aligned with a visualized, trans-sacral axial instrumentation/fusion line extending in said axial aspect through the series of adjacent vertebral bodies; and tract means defining a percutaneous tract having a tract axis and a tract lumen aligned with said visualized, trans-sacral axial instrumentation/fusion line and extending from the skin incision to the accessed anterior sacral position to facilitate surgical procedures aligned with said visualized, trans-sacral axial instrumentation/fusion line; wherein the guide means comprises a percutaneous tubular member and a stiff blunt tip occluder; wherein the percutaneous tubular member comprises a tubular member shaft and a tubular member lumen extending between a beveled tubular member distal end and a tubular member proximal end hub, wherein the stiff blunt tip occluder comprises an occluder length between an occluder distal end and an occluder proximal end, the stiff blunt tip occluder being sized and configured to be slideably moveable within the tubular member lumen, the occluder length dimensioned to allow the occluder distal end to protrude beyond the beveled tubular member distal end when the occluder proximal end abuts the tubular member proximal end hub.