Patent ID: 7476252

Claim:
A method for inserting an intervertebral implant, comprising: accessing a collapsed spinal disc space; sequentially inserting and removing a number of trial bodies into the collapsed spinal disc space; selecting the trial body having a height providing a desired disc space height; selecting an intervertebral implant having a height that is the same as the height of the selected trial body; removing the selected trial body such that the spinal disc space is non-distracted; and inserting the selected intervertebral implant into the spinal disc space without maintaining distraction in the spinal disc space during the inserting of the intervertebral implant, wherein inserting the selected intervertebral implant includes distracting the non-distracted spinal disc space with the selected intervertebral implant to restore the collapsed spinal disc space to the desired disc space height and post-operatively maintain the desired disc space height.