US Patent 8025684 Instruments and methods for inserting a spinal implant

Instruments of an instrumentation set may be used to prepare a disc space and to insert an implant into the prepared disc space. The instruments may include fixed tip distractors and/or modular tip distractors. The instruments may include a chisel. The chisel may allow simultaneous removal of a desired amount of bone from each of a pair of vertebrae. The instruments may include an implant inserter. The implant inserter may grip sides of an implant. A portion of the implant inserter may fit within grooves of the implant to minimize or eliminate portions of the implant that extend beyond side surfaces of the implant.