Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7763047?ie=ISO-8859-1&dq=5,815,794
Timestamp: 2015-04-28 11:29:19
Document Index: 243749435

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 60', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2004228019', 'Application No. 2003228960', 'Application No. 2006200772', 'Application No. 2003', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 2006200772', 'Application No. 04758814', 'Application No. 2415072', 'Application No. 2006', 'Application No. 200480014833', 'Application No. 2520741', 'Application No. 200480014833', 'Application No. 2475200', 'Application No. 200680030105', 'Application No. 2003', 'Application No. 2003', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004216131', 'Application No. 03733832', 'Application No. 04758814', 'Application No. 04758814', 'Application No. 06785447', 'Application No. 03733832']

Priority is claimed from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/359,246 filed Feb. 20, 2002 entitled �PEDICLE SCREW CONNECTOR APPARATUS AND METHOD,� which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Spinal fusion surgery is a method of placing bone graft material between two mobile segments of the spine to knit them together as one unit and eliminate motion between the segments. Fusion surgery can be performed with or without the use of spinal instrumentation for internal fixation. Internal fixation instruments are used to provide stability to decrease motion between segments of the spine and to allow the bone fusion to knit together. They act as an internal splint. Internal fixation devices may be attached with hooks, wires or bone screws. When bone screws orpedicle screws are employed they are screwed into the pedicles of a vertebra and connected to rods or plates to stabilize movement between the vertebrae to which they are connected. Thus, pedicle screws are implants used in the thoracic and lumbar spine to help surgeons stabilize the spine. �Headless� pedicle screws are used for several reasons, including the fact that headless screw design has been known to make it easier for surgeons to implant pedicle screws while avoiding the facet joint. In addition, pedicle screws can be implanted at each spinal level.
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