ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,605,254, issued on April 21.
"Expandable intervertebral cage implant" was invented by Robert Woodruff (Rapid City, S.D.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An expandable intervertebral cage, having: a top plate with rotatable leaves thereon; a bottom plate with rotatable leaves thereon; front and rear wedges; and a deployment mechanism that moves the front or rear wedges to rotate the leaves on the top and bottom plates into a deployed position that increases the width of the intervertebral cage. The deployment mechanism also moves the wedges to push the top and bottom plates farther apart thereby increasing the height of the intervertebral ...