PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15958715
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["623", "017120"]

Abstract:
This specification describes technologies relating to an intervertebral disc prosthesis used to strengthen and stabilize the spine. Implementations of the technology described herein comprise a surgical device that is implanted through a small surgical incision into a portion of a human intervertebral disc, various support tools used to insert such a surgical device, and a method by which the device is used to strengthen and stabilize the spine.

Claim (Index 1):
A method for implanting a prosthetic intervertebral disc implant to preserve motion between adjacent vertebrae, comprising:\n forming an access opening through an annulus fibrosus without excising any portion of the annulus fibrosus by penetrating the annulus fibrosus using a first tool; after forming the access opening using the first tool, enlarging the access opening to a desired size without excising any portion of the annulus fibrosus by sequentially placing a plurality of dilators of successively larger cross-section diameter over the first tool; inserting an access cannula over an outermost dilator of the plurality of dilators until the distal end of the access cannula reaches the distal margins of the annulus fibrosus to provide access to a nucleus pulposus of an intervertebral disc located between adjacent vertebrae; removing the first tool and the plurality of dilators from the access cannula; removing the nucleus pulposus while leaving the annulus fibrosus substantially intact to create a void formerly occupied by the nucleus pulposus; delivering a deflated prosthetic implant through the access cannula and through the annulus fibrosus into the void formerly occupied by the nucleus pulposus, the prosthetic implant having a centrally located inner chamber and an outer chamber around the inner chamber; the outer chamber being distinct from the inner chamber and forming an outer surface of the implant; inflating the inner chamber; permanently inflating the outer chamber with a curable material; allowing the curable material to cure so that the outer chamber is substantially incompressible and the inner chamber is comparatively compressible; and removing the access cannula.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.63636
- Patent Class: 623.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14536497', '15342161', '15254282', '13831355', '11170588']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8109409155341136
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5344265446907688
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7832894784497793
- Mean Citation Score: 332.682184
- Max Citation Score: 435.43677
- Similarity Product: 334.01497121366504

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test