Patent ID: 8906094

Claim:
A method of performing percutaneous interbody spinal fusion on adjacent vertebrae of a patient comprising the steps of: creating a percutaneous access opening into the patient, the access opening being less than 10 mm wide; and using indirect visualization, without retraction, to place a neural monitoring probe into the percutaneous access opening to establish a surgical path to an intervertebral disc via neural monitoring through the percutaneous access opening; after establishing the surgical path via neural monitoring, creating a cavity in an intervertebral disc space of the adjacent vertebrae by inserting an instrument through the surgical path, without retraction; after creating the cavity, evaluating the created cavity; inserting an expandable container into the created cavity through the surgical path in a collapsed state, wherein the container in the collapsed state is sized to fit through the less than 10 mm wide percutaneous access opening without retraction of the access opening; and after insertion the container into the cavity, filling the container with fill material through the surgical path via the percutaneous access opening, without retraction, wherein the fill material promotes bony fusion and stabilization of the adjacent vertebrae.