An interbody spacer for implantation into the intervertebral space between
adjacent vertebrae of a patient's spinal column. The interbody spacer is
a monolithic body having a predetermined slot design formed therein that
provides flexibility to the spacer to allow movement of the adjacent
vertebrae along multiple axies, that is, the patient can move both side
to side and front to back and rotation. In one embodiment, the slot
design is a spiral slot and in an alternate embodiment, the slot design
comprises pairs of oppositely disposed, co-planar slots with alternating
pairs of the slots offset about 90 degrees from the preceding pair of
slots. Further embodiments include interbody spacers having the
aforedescribed slot designs for implantation from the posterior, the
anterior or translaterally into the intervertebral space while still
allowing the multi-axial flexibility of the adjacent vertebrae.