Patent ID: 8419745

Claim:
A bender bar for bending a bone plate, the bone plate having an upper surface, a lower surface, a thickness defined by the distance between the upper and lower surfaces, and a plurality of oblong screw holes passing through the upper and lower surfaces, the oblong screw holes having a major diameter and a relatively transverse minor diameter, said major diameters of said oblong screw holes extending parallel to a longitudinal axis of said plate, said bender bar comprising: a) an elongate lever arm having a first end and a second end; b) a fulcrum at said first end for contacting the upper surface of the bone plate; and c) a foot at said first end sized to extend through said oblong screw hole and contact the lower surface of the bone plate at a periphery of the screw hole, such that said fulcrum and said foot are disposable on the upper and lower surface on opposing sides of the plate, and said foot and said fulcrum situated to be longitudinally displaced from each other along the longitudinal axis of the plate, wherein said second end of said lever arm includes a first side having a cut-out provided with a central divider, said cut-out having a depth generally corresponding to the thickness of the plate and a length to extend widthwise across the plate, and the divider positioned and sized to extend within the oblong screw hole of the plate.