Patent ID: 8096995

Claim:
A method, comprising: inserting an elongate member into a patient's body, the elongate member having an outer shell and an inner drive member; the inserting occurring with an implant already disposed in an interspinous space defined between adjacent spinous processes within the patient's body; after the inserting and with the implant disposed in the interspinous space, coupling a distal end of the outer shell of the elongate member to an outer member of the implant while the implant remains disposed in the interspinous space; after the inserting and with the implant disposed in the interspinous space, coupling the inner drive member of the elongate member to an inner member of the implant while the implant remains disposed in the interspinous space; while the outer shell and the inner drive member are coupled to the outer and inner members of the implant respectively, moving the inner drive member of the elongate member in a distal direction relative to the outer shell of the elongate member such that the inner member of the implant moves in the distal direction relative to a first portion of the outer member of the implant to deform the outer member of the implant from an expanded configuration to a collapsed configuration; wherein a retention arm of the outer member of the implant is disposed farther away from a longitudinal axis of the implant in the expanded configuration than in the collapsed configuration.