Kyphon Sarl

Life Technologies Corporation

Relievant Medsystems, Inc.

Warsaw Othropedic, Inc.

Relevant Medsysterns, Inc.

Brian W Donovan

Bryan A Click

Thomas Michael Baer

Craig S Barker

Alan E Wessel

George M Dawson

Michael A Smith

Michael G Youngquist

Alexander Pruitt

Norbert Leclerc

Andrea Y Leung

Ray M Baker

Samit Patel

Michael Willink

Robert B Hubler

Paul F Muller

Paul C Leonard

Avram Allan Edidin

Thomas C Arends

Keith Schubert

Norbert H Leclerc

Lisanne A Eng

David P Thompson

Stephanie Ann Barnes

Hugues Malandain

Andrew C Kohm

Jeffrey D Schwardt

Erika I Palmer

Mike Smith

Eric Wong

Michael Youngquist

Michael Smith

Alexandre M Dinello

Michael R Marks

Hugues F Malandain

Described herein are various implementations of systems and methods for treating back pain (e.g., chronic low back pain) caused by different (e.g., independent) sources of pain, such as pain originating or stemming from intervertebral discs, from vertebral endplates, and/or from intraosseous locations within one or more vertebral bodies. For example, methods for treating back pain (e.g., chronic low back pain) may involve both vertebral fusion (e.g., arthrodesis or spondylodesis to fuse adjacent vertebrae) and neuromodulation (for example, ablation of nerves within or surrounding one or more of the adjacent vertebrae). The neuromodulation may facilitate treatment of pain that is generated by insertion of fusion hardware.

Vertebral denervation in conjunction with vertebral fusion

Systems and methods for preventing, mitigating, or reducing the occurrence of impedance-related stoppages during radiofrequency procedures, such as intraosseous nerve or basivertebral nerve ablation procedures for treatment or prevention of back pain or other tissue ablation, stimulation, or other modulation or modification procedures are described.

Impedance stoppage mitigation during radiofrequency tissue ablation procedures

Systems and methods for automated laser microdissection are disclosed including automatic slide detection, position detection of cutting and capture lasers, focus optimization for cutting and capture lasers, energy and duration optimization for cutting and capture lasers, inspection and second phase capture and/or ablation in a quality control station and tracking information for linking substrate carrier or output microdissected regions with input sample or slide.

Automated microdissection instrument and method for processing a biological sample

A steerable, or curveable, introducer drill to access a target treatment region within bone along a curved trajectory is disclosed. The drill may include a drive shaft including a proximal rotational member, a distal drill tip, and an elongate shaft portion extending from the proximal rotational member to the distal drill tip. The distal drill tip may be sharp and include cutting flutes. The drill may also include an outer tube surrounding the drive shaft. A distal end portion of the outer tube may include a segmented tube section configured to facilitate controlled bending of the segmented tube section of the outer tube. The drill may also include an actuator operably coupled to the drive shaft and adapted to apply tension to the drive shaft which, in turn, causes the segmented tube section of the outer tube to bend.

Introducer drill

Described herein are various implementations of systems and methods for determining likelihood of a patient favorably responding to a neuromodulation procedure based on a quantitative or objective score or determination based on a plurality of indicators of pain (e.g., chronic low back pain stemming from one or more vertebral bodies or vertebral endplates of a patient). The systems and methods may involve application of artificial intelligence techniques (e.g., trained algorithms, machine learning or deep learning algorithms, and/or trained neural networks).

Prediction of candidates for spinal neuromodulation

Described herein are various implementations of systems and methods for accessing and modulating tissue (for example, systems and methods for accessing and ablating nerves or other tissue within or surrounding a vertebral body to treat chronic lower back pain). Assessment of vertebral endplate degeneration or defects (e.g., pre-Modic changes) to facilitate identification of treatment sites and protocols are also provided in several embodiments. Several embodiments comprise the use of biomarkers to confirm or otherwise assess ablation, pain relief, efficacy of treatment, etc. Some embodiments include robotic elements for, as an example, facilitating robotically controlled access, navigation, imaging, and/or treatment.

Methods of treating a vertebral body

Methods of detecting and treating back pain

Accessing and treating tissue within a vertebral body

Automated microdissection instrument using tracking information

Introducer systems for bone access

Curved bone access systems

Automated microdissection instrument with controlled focusing during movement of a laser beam across a tissue sample

Automated microdissection instrument for determining a location of a laser beam projection on a worksurface area

A valve controller includes a housing, and a lever extending from the housing. The lever includes a protrusion rigidly attached to the lever, and the lever is biased to an initial position. A switch has an open and a closed position. A linkage is pivotally connected to the switch, and the linkage includes a centrally disposed slot configured to receive the protrusion such that movement of the switch controls movement of the linkage and the lever such that moving the switch to the closed position closes a valve controlled by the lever regardless of a position of the lever.

Valve control mechanism and method

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Brian W Donovan