Patent ID: 8628574

Claim:
A device for stabilizing at least one spinal motion segment comprising a first vertebra having a first spinous process and a second vertebra having a second spinous process, the device comprising: an expandable spacer having an undeployed configuration with an undeployed axial dimension, and a deployed configuration having a deployed axial dimension, the undeployed axial dimension is greater than the deployed axial dimension, the expandable spacer including: a plurality of first deployable segments, at least one of the first deployable segments including a first vertebra receiving feature configured to receive the first vertebra when a longitudinal axis of the expandable spacer extends substantially transversely to a sagittal plane, and a plurality of second deployable segments, at least one of the second deployable segments including a second vertebra receiving feature configured to receive the second vertebra when the longitudinal axis of the expandable spacer extends substantially transversely to the sagittal plane, wherein the first segment with the first vertebra receiving feature and the second segment with the second vertebra receiving feature move away from the longitudinal axis of the expandable spacer such that the first vertebra is moved into the first vertebra receiving feature and the second vertebra is moved into the second vertebra receiving feature when a deployment device is coupled to the expandable spacer and the deployment device moves the expandable spacer from the undeployed configuration to the deployed configuration.