ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,295,858, issued on May 13, was assigned to MUSC FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT (Charleston, S.C.).
"Expandable vertebral body replacement device and method" was invented by Mark Evald Semler (Mount Pleasant, S.C.), Bruce Frankel (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) and Joseph Ruscito (Charleston, S.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An expandable vertebral body implant, and methods of assembly and using the implant. The vertebral body implant includes a body with a first end and a second end, a rotating member rotatably coupled to the first end of the body, wherein an end includes a plurality of first notches inset into the rotating member, an ext...