Various angularly-adjustable spinal fixation systems are provided and generally include an articulating connector having first and second elongate rods extending therefrom, and first and second polyaxial bone screw assemblies configured to seat the first and second rods therein. The rods are configured to be seated within receiver heads of the polyaxial bone screw assemblies when the screws are implanted in opposed lateral sides of a vertebra, thereby allowing the receiver heads to be manipulated relative to the rods to reduce one or more posterior fractures. A joint on the articulating connector can also be manipulated to reduce one or more anterior fractures. The entire construct can be locked to maintain the fractures in the reduced configuration.

A system and method for developing customized apparatus, such as guides, for use in one or more surgical procedures is disclosed. The system and method incorporates a patient's unique anatomical features or morphology, which may be derived from capturing MRI data or CT data, to fabricate at least one custom apparatus or guide. According to a preferred embodiment, the customized apparatus comprises at least one patient-specific surface and or contour, which may be derived from MRI or CT data. Apparatus may be matched in duplicate and oriented around the patient's own anatomy, and may further provide any desired axial alignments or surgical instrument insertional trajectories. In an alternate embodiment, the apparatus may further be aligned and/or matched and/or nested with at least one other apparatus during the surgical procedure.

Methods of manufacturing a custom arthroplasty resection guide or jig are disclosed herein. For example, one method may include: generating MRI knee coil two dimensional images, wherein the knee coil images include a knee region of a patient; generating MRI body coil two dimensional images, wherein the body cod images include a hip region of the patient, the knee region of the patient and an ankle region of the patient; in the knee coil images, identifying first locations of knee landmarks; in the body coil images, identifying second locations of the knee landmarks; run a transformation with the first and second locations, causing the knee coil images and body coil images to generally correspond with each other with respect to location and orientation.

Surgical methods and devices are provided for bending spinal rods. In one embodiment, a handheld tool is provided having an elongate shaft with a lumen formed therein that is configured to accommodate a spinal rod. The tool can include an opening in a proximal end that is configured to permit the loading of the spinal rod into the lumen, and a plurality of openings spaced along a longitudinal axis thereof that intersect the lumen for allowing a user to view and/or grasp a rod extending through the rod-receiving lumen and positioned within one of the plurality of openings. The tool can further be configured to permit a bent spinal rod to be received within the lumen. For example, the tool can include a channel in a lower surface thereof that allows a rod to exit the lumen and to extend laterally away from the tool.

A surgical planning and assessment system is disclosed. The system may include a computing system having a processor, a data store, and a patient specific planning and analysis module. The system may be configured to store a patient specific target plan including a digital representation of a spinal rod having a target geometry and transform the digital representation into a curved line. The system may generate a spline data set comprising a plurality of spline segments that are sequentially linked to one another. The system may adjust, iteratively, each spline segment until the plurality of spline segments approximate the curved line. The system may generate a digital file comprising drawings for manufacturing a spinal rod based on the plurality of spline segments. In various embodiments, each spline segment may be defined by a corresponding arc or a corresponding line extending between a corresponding starting point and a corresponding ending point.

A system and method for the minimally invasive insertion of an intervertebral rod into the vertebrae of a subject, according to a preoperative surgical plan also defining positions for the insertion of rod clamping screws into the vertebrae. The rod shape for connecting the heads of the screws is calculated, and a path planning algorithm used to determine whether the distal end of the rod can be threaded through the screw heads by longitudinal and rotational manipulation of the proximal end of the rod. If so, instructions are provided for forming that rod shape and for the robotic insertion of the screw holes and the rod. If not, either or both of the screw positions and the rod shape are adjusted, to moderate the bends in the rods, until insertion becomes possible. The insertion can be performed robotically, or, if a navigation tracking system is added, manually.

A robotic system may include a robot base and a rod feeding subassembly coupled to the robot base that includes a feeding actuator configured to selectively move a surgical rod. The robotic system may include a brake subassembly coupled to the robot base that includes a brake actuator configured to receive the surgical rod from the rod feeding subassembly, and selectively fix a first portion of the surgical rod with respect to the brake subassembly. The robotic system may include a bending subassembly coupled to the robot base that includes a bending actuator configured to selectively rotate to engage a second portion of the surgical rod and bend the second portion of the surgical rod with respect to the first portion of the surgical rod so that the first portion and the second portion of the surgical rod define a first bend angle.

A computer-implemented method of preoperatively planning a surgical procedure on a knee of a patient including determining femoral condyle vectors and tibial plateau vectors based on image data of the knee, the femoral condyle vectors and the tibial plateau vectors corresponding to motion vectors of the femoral condyles and the tibial plateau as they move relative to each other. The method may also include modifying a bone model representative of at least one of the femur and the tibia into a modified bone model based on the femoral condyle vectors and the tibial plateau vectors. And the method may further include determining coordinate locations for a resection of the modified bone model.

A method of planning an arthroplasty procedure on a femur and tibia of a patient. The method includes receiving a first two-dimensional image of the femur and the tibia, and identifying, in the first two-dimensional image, a proximal femur feature, a distal tibia feature, and a bone contour. The method further includes running a transformation process to align a bone model representative of the femur and the tibia into a coordinate system with the first two-dimensional image, the bone model having a bone model contour that is aligned with the bone contour of the femur and the tibia in the first two-dimensional image. And the method further includes applying an implant model to the bone model in order to determine coordinate locations for the arthroplasty resection.

A spinal rod assembly includes a flexible spinal fusion rod including link members that articulate with one another so that the rod is formable into a curved orientation. A locking mechanism is coupled to the link members and can lock the link members so that the rod is maintained in the curved orientation.