Paragraph Number

73

Examples according to the present disclosure provide methods, implants, and instruments capable of compressing first and second bone portions or a bone portion and an implant together. FIGS. 1-9 illustrate an example in the form of a fastener 100 for joining first and second bone portions. As used herein, a "fastener" refers to any structure configured, designed, or engineered to join two structures.  Fasteners may be made of a variety of materials including metal, plastic, composite materials, metal alloys, plastic composites, and the like. Examples of fasteners include, but are not limited to screws, rivets, bolts, nails, snaps, hook and loop, set screws, bone screws, nuts, posts, pins, thumb screws, and the like. Other examples of fasteners include, but are not limited to wires, Kirschner wires (K-wire), anchors, bone anchors, plates, bone plates, intramedullary nails or rods or pins, implants, sutures, soft sutures, soft anchors, interbody cages, fusion cages, and the like. In certain embodiments, the term fastener may be used with an adjective that identifies an object or structure that the fastener may be particularly configured, designed, or engineered to engage, connect to, join, contact, or couple together with one or more other structures of the same or different types. For example, a "bone fastener" may refer to an apparatus for joining or connecting one or more bones, one or more bone portions, soft tissue and a bone or bone portion, hard tissue and a bone or bone portion, or the like. The fastener includes an insertion axis 102 along which the fastener moves as it is inserted into or removed from a bone.

Added by DJM 12 2021