Supple intervertebral stabilizer, and method and apparatus for determining or controlling its tension before it is placed on the back bone

摘要

The present invention relates to a stabilizer respectively, which comprises one or several ligament (s) of a flexible (s) 1, 1a, 1b, respectively (s) associated with two retaining screw 2, 3 can be implanted in a respective vertebra v1, v2, each flexible ligament 1, preferably having the form of a loop and the retaining screw associated 2, 3 are each provided with a free head 4 for the attachment of a respective end of the ligament. / p & & p & the present invention also relates to a process, and the equipment associated, in order to determine and control the voltage of such an intervertebral stabilizer before its installation on the spine. This process, carried out after implantation in each of the vertebrae concerned v1, v2, of a rigid rod 12 extending out of the patient's body, consists, for each pair of adjacent rods, to immobilize the two rods in an initial position and, in the case of persistence of the pain which must be eliminated by the stabilizer, to modify the distance between the rods, and then to immobilize the latter in their relative position and to perform the test of pain, this cycle of operations is repeated until the said pain disappears, the length of the ligament being deduced from the distance thus achieved between the two rods.