Abstract: By implanting two prosthetic disc capsules side-by-side into a damaged disc of a human spine, both height and motion, including front-to-back bending, can be maintained. Each prosthetic disc capsule has a bladder enclosing a fluid containing a therapeutic material that is slowly diffusible through a semi-permeable membrane of the bladder. The fluid filling the semi-permeable membrane preferably is an aqueous solution that has gel-like properties that afford a viscosity and velocity-shear behavior imitating the natural rheology of intradiscal nuclear tissue. Those properties are obtained when the aqueous solution is of a mucopolysaccharide such as hyaluronic acid or soldium hyaluronate.

Abstract: A known kneeling attachment to an operating table includes a platform on which a patient kneels with the torso positioned over one end of the operating table while the buttocks rest against a buttocks support including a rigid U-shaped yoke, the arms of which are connected to opposite sides of the operating table. In the buttocks support of the invention, the arms of the U-shaped yoke are connected to the inboard end of the platform, and a mast fixed to the crosspiece of the yoke is telescopically connected to the outboard end of the platform. This permits the yoke to be lowered to the level of the platform, thus allowing a patient to kneel on or dismount from the platform without first disconnecting the yoke. By making the platform of radiotransparent materials, x-ray beams can pass from a generator positioned beneath the platform, through the front of the patient's body, and to an image tube positioned above the patient's back.

Abstract: For use in back surgery, a known kneeling attachment to an operating table has a platform on which a patient kneels with the torso positioned over one end of an operating table and the buttocks resting against the padded crosspiece of a rigid U-shaped yoke. The invention concerns a substantially rectangular rigid frame which can be mounted on the yoke with an outboard crossarm of the frame attached to the crosspiece of the yoke and the inboard end of the frame attached to the arms of the yoke. The frame is useful for supporting surgical instruments such as retractors at a surgical wound, in particular a retraction device that a surgeon can adjust with one hand, even without looking. The frame also makes possible a new surgical procedure by which a dislocated vertebra can be moved into position by a lifting mechanism suspended from the frame.

Abstract: Particulate bone is more easily and quickly guided into position for impaction into the site of a fusion mass by using a surgical funnel provided by an elongated, thin, flat base and a pair of thin, upstanding walls which extend along the elongated edges of the base to provide a chute. While the outlet of the funnel rests against the recipient site, particulate bond is incrementally pushed from the chute and tamped to build a fushion mass. By doing so, the particulate bone is much less likely to become contaminated by soft tissues. Preferably the reservoir provided by the upstanding walls is large enough to hold sufficient particulate bond to complete one side of a usual fusion mass so that the funnel can be left in position during that part of the surgical procedure. The funnel can be a single piece of metal or plastic.

Abstract: By implanting two prosthetic disc capsules side-by-side into a damaged disc of a human spine, both height and motion, including front-to-back bending, can be maintained. The prosthetic disc capsules have an outer layer of strong, inert fibers intermingled with a bioresorbable material which attracts tissue ingrowth, a bladder enveloped by the layer, and a thixotropic gel filling the bladder. The prosthetic disc capsules can be surgically implanted by (1) jacking apart the vertebrae adjacent a damaged disc, (2) forming a substantially sagital bore in the damaged disc near each of its lateral edges, and (3) inserting one of the capsules axially into each bore.