Polyaxial screw

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2007)


A polyaxial screw is used for connecting vertebrae to rods in spinal surgery. It is essentially a screw whose spherical head is enclosed on a housing, which allows the screw a range of motion along several different axes relative to the housing. The ball joint allows the surgeon some flexibility in placing the screws.

It has also been hypothesized that polyaxial screws add a safety benefit by failing in the housing/screw interface before breaking in the shaft of the bone screw or in the orthopaedic rod.

[edit] External links


 This surgery article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.