US Patent Issued to ALPHATEC SPINE on Dec. 16 for "Vertebral body replacement and insertion device" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,496,196, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to ALPHATEC SPINE INC. (Carlsbad, Calif.).

"Vertebral body replacement and insertion device" was invented by Parker Smith (San Diego), Steven Leong (San Diego), Jared Beach (Del Mar, Calif.), Thomas Hackathorn (Vista, Calif.) and Scott Robinson (Encinitas, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An expandable interbody with a modular endplate has an outer column, an inner column threadedly coupled and translatable relative to the outer column along the longitudinal axis, and an expansion ring to adjust a body length of the expandable interbody. The expansion ring has a plurality of teeth, and the ou...