Patent ID: 8620456

Claim:
An assembly for pain suppressing electrical stimulation of a patient's spinal cord, the assembly comprising: (a) a lateral series of electrical contact plates; (b) a medial series of electrical contact plates; (c) an oppositely lateral series of electrical contact plates; (d) a lateral panel, each electrical contact plate among the lateral series of electrical contact plates being fixedly attached to the lateral panel; (e) a medial panel having a proximal end, a lateral side, and an oppositely lateral side, each electrical contact plate among the medial series of electrical contact plates being fixedly attached to the medial panel; (f) an oppositely lateral panel, each electrical contact plate among the oppositely lateral series of electrical contact plates being fixedly attached to the oppositely lateral panel; (g) hinge means comprising living hinges, the hinge means respectively attaching the lateral and oppositely lateral panels to the medial panel's lateral and oppositely lateral sides, the hinge means being adapted for facilitating pivoting movements of the lateral and oppositely lateral panels between compact retracted positions and extended electrical contact surface augmenting positions; (h) a plurality of proximally extending electrically conductive wires, each wire among said plurality of wires having a distal end, each of said distal ends communicating electrically with one of the plates among the lateral, medial, and oppositely lateral series of electrical contact plates; (i) a flexible insulator having proximal and distal ends, the flexible insulator's distal end being fixedly attached to or formed wholly with the medial panel's proximal end; and (j) a hollow longitudinally extending bore, the hollow longitudinally extending bore having a bore wall; each wire among the plurality of electrically conductive wires and the hollow longitudinally extending bore's bore wall being positioned within the flexible insulator.