An implant for restoring height of a vertebral body. The implant includes upper and lower plates configured to be moved away from one another in the craniocaudal direction. A first support and a second support are arranged to crisscross in a proximal-to-distal direction to facilitate increased expansion of the implant, and a third support and a fourth support may be arranged to crisscross in the proximal-to-distal direction. Certain supports may be laterally spaced from one another to define a void space for receiving a retaining element. An upper support fork may include a first pair of supports arranged in a V-shaped configuration and converge at an apex that is coupled to an underside of the upper plate. A lower support fork may include a second pair of supports arranged in a V-shaped configuration and converge at another apex that is coupled to an upper side of the lower plate.

A bellows shaped spinal implant, comprising an upper plate, a lower plate and a bellows shaped shell extending between and joining the upper and lower plates. The bellows shaped shell is formed of titanium or an alloy comprising titanium and includes a wall extending therearound that defines a hollow interior. The wall has a thickness in the range of 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm to provide for radiographic imaging through the wall. The wall is angled or curved inwardly or outwardly between the upper and lower plates to provide stiffness mimicking the stiffness properties of a similarly sized polyetheretherketone (PEEK) implant. The upper and lower plates each comprise porous contact regions including a three-dimensional gyroid lattice structure defined by a plurality of struts and pores in communication with the hollow interior. The outer surfaces of at least a portion of the struts may comprise a laser ablated textured surface.

A system and method for forming a medical implant using a printing device. The printing device includes a print head having a heated nozzle, a heated build plate for receiving the printed material thereon, and a reflective plate having an active heater. A method for forming a medical device includes extruding a printing material by contiguous deposition to form a porous object having a lattice-like structure. The medical device, such as a spinal implant, may have interconnected pores and different regions, each having a different porosity for encouraging bone growth therein. The printed medical implant may be designed to be patient-specific, customized, and printed on-demand.

A device used in conjunction with fixation hardware to provide a two-stage process to address the competing needs of immobilization and re-establishment of normal stress-strain trajectories in grafted bone. A method of determining a patient-specific stress/strain pattern that utilizes a model based on 3D CT data of the relevant structures and cross-sectional data of the three major chewing muscles. The forces on each of the chewing muscles are determined based on the model using predetermined bite forces such that a stiffness of cortical bone in the patient's mandible is determined. Based on the stiffness data, suitable implantation hardware can be designed for the patient by adjusting external topological and internal porous geometries that reduce the stiffness of biocompatible metals to thereby restore normal bite forces of the patient.

A system and method for forming a medical implant using a printing device. The printing device includes a print head having a heated nozzle, a heated build plate for receiving the printed material thereon, and a reflective plate having an active heater. A method for forming a medical device includes extruding a printing material by contiguous deposition to form a porous object having a lattice-like structure. The medical device, such as a spinal implant, may have interconnected pores and different regions, each having a different porosity for encouraging bone growth therein. The printed medical implant may be designed to be patient-specific, customized, and printed on-demand.

The present invention disclosed a method of producing a three-dimensional porous tissue in-growth structure. The method includes the steps of depositing a first layer of metal powder and scanning the first layer of metal powder with a laser beam to form a portion of a plurality of predetermined unit cells. Depositing at least one additional layer of metal powder onto a previous layer and repeating the step of scanning a laser beam for at least one of the additional layers in order to continuing forming the predetermined unit cells. The method further includes continuing the depositing and scanning steps to form a medical implant.

Computer implemented methods of producing a bone graft are provided. These methods include obtaining a 3-D image of an intended bone graft site; generating a 3-D digital model of the bone graft based on the 3-D image of the intended bone graft site, the 3-D digital model of the bone graft being configured to fit within a 3-D digital model of the intended bone graft site; storing the 3-D digital model on a database coupled to a processor, the processor having instructions for retrieving the stored 3-D digital model of the bone graft and for combining a carrier material with, in or on a bone material based on the stored 3-D digital model and for instructing a 3-D printer to produce the bone graft. A layered 3-D printed bone graft prepared by the computer implemented method is also provided.

Methods of forming topographical features on an article, for example on a medical devices that has a surface configured to promote the migration of cells onto the surface of the medical device. In particular, the resulting surface of the medical device has a noncontiguous pattern of topographical features formed therein or thereon.

Disclosed herein is a spinal implant with a solid frame and a porous inner layer. The implant may have a cavity defined by the porous inner layer. The solid frame may have one or more ribs extending from a medial wall to a lateral wall. The thickness of the porous layer may vary relative the thickness of the solid frame at various locations. An inserter to place a spinal implant and a method to perform same are also disclosed.

Intervertebral implant systems include spacers that may have solid and porous bodies integrally formed together as a single part. The bone-facing sides of the spacers include asymmetric lobes which may include solid and/or porous portions. Bone anchor holes may extend through the spacers and lobes, to receive bone anchors. A helically fluted bone anchor may be received in the bone anchor holes.