ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,274,480, issued on April 15.
"Vertebral body distraction support nail" was invented by Wei Zhang (Beijing), Zhongyang Liu (Beijing), Jiantao Li (Beijing), Chuyang Zeng (Beijing), Xiaomeng Ren (Beijing) and Peifu Tang (Beijing).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vertebral body distraction support nail, including a support nail body including an inner core, an outer sleeve and a distraction ball, and a support nail cap including a cylindrical upper support nail cap and a pressure cap. The inner core is threadedly connected inside the outer sleeve, and has upper and lower ends both extending out of the outer sleeve. The lower end of the inner c...