Patent ID: 7985224

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a plate of appropriate length adapted to overlap at least a portion of two adjacent vertebral bodies in the human spine, the plate having at least a first plate segment adapted to be attached to one of the adjacent vertebral bodies to be fused and a second plate segment adapted to be attached to another one of the adjacent vertebral bodies to be fused, the first and second plate segments being in moveable relationship to one another along a longitudinal axis of the plate, the first and second plate segments being fastened together by a fastener being non-detachably attached to at least one of the first and second plate segments so as to prevent complete uncoupling of the first and second plate segments from one another; inserting at least a first bone screw through the first plate segment of the plate and into one of the adjacent vertebral bodies adjacent the disc space to be fused; inserting at least a second bone screw through the second plate segment and into the other of the adjacent vertebral bodies adjacent the disc space to be fused; locking at least one of the bone screws with at least one bone screw lock adapted to lock to the plate only a single bone screw; tightening the fastener from a first position to a second position to resist movement of the first and second plate segments relative to each other in at least one direction; and permitting movement of the first and second plate segments attached to the adjacent vertebral bodies in a direction toward one another along the longitudinal axis of the plate and resisting movement of the first and second plate segments in a direction away from one another along the longitudinal axis of the plate when the fastener is in the second position.