Patent ID: 7022139

Claim:
An intervertebral spacer device, comprising: a first baseplate, having an outwardly facing surface and an inwardly facing surface, the inwardly facing surface having a central hole; a second baseplate, having an outwardly facing surface and an integrated convex structure, the convex structure including a curvate pocket and a protrusion adjacent the convex structure's curvate pocket, the convex structure's curvate pocket being formed by a central portion of an outwardly facing surface of the convex structure concaving inwardly to define a semispherical contour, the convex structure's curvate pocket further having an apex at a center of the convex structure's curvate pocket's semispherical contour, the convex structure further having a bore through the convex structure's curvate pocket's apex from the convex structure's outwardly facing surface to the convex structure's inwardly facing surface, the second baseplate having on its outwardly facing surface an access hole leading to the convex structure's curvate pocket; a post having a longitudinal axis, a tail end, and a head end having a ball defining a spherical contour and having a curvate recess; and a cap having an inwardly facing surface and a curvate pocket having a semispherical contour, the cap's curvate pocket being formed by a central portion of the cap's inwardly facing surface concaving outwardly; wherein the tail end is disposable through the access hole and through the bore, and the head end is disposable through the access hole and prevented from passage through the bore, such that the ball is seatable in the convex structure's curvate pocket with the ball's curvate recess accommodating the convex structure's protrusion; and wherein the tail end is securable in the central hole; and wherein the cap is securable to the second baseplate such that the cap's curvate pocket's semispherical contour opposes the convex structure's curvate pocket's semispherical contour such that the semispherical contours together define a curvate socket defining a spherical contour, into which curvate socket the convex structure's protrusion thus extends, that closely accommodates the ball's spherical contour for rotation and angulation of the ball in the curvate socket about a central portion of the ball, with the ball's curvate recess accommodating the convex structure's protrusion to limit rotation of the ball in the curvate socket, and such that the post is accommodated for rotation in the bore about the longitudinal axis as the ball rotates in the curvate socket, and such that the post is accommodated for angulation in the bore about the ball's central portion as the ball angulates in the curvate socket.