US Patent 8100971 Coatings for spinal implants

The present application describes a spinal implant device comprising a load-bearing component having at least one soft tissue-facing surface and a coating affixed to the soft tissue-facing surface. The coating is operable to define an interface with the soft tissue that exhibits one or more of the following features: reduced friction, reduced tissue irritation, reduced adhesion, reduced inflammation, reduced incidence of infection and reduced pain, relative to the soft tissue-facing surface in the absence of the coating. Other embodiments include methods of use and manufacture of the apparatus. The application also describes a method involving affixing a load-bearing prosthetic spinal implant device to first and second vertebrae of a motion segment and, after the device is affixed, applying to a soft tissue-facing surface of the device a flowable, curable coating material operable to cure in situ to form a coating.