The invention is a super elastic bone plate and inserter. The bone plate has a plate section with openings for screws at fixed or variable angles, an optional compression slot, and a pronged section (i.e. the claw foot), which is generally transverse to the long axis of the plate for insertion, and after deployment returns to an angle of less than 90° to impart compression at a bone/bone interface, e.g. to cause fusion between bone segments. The inserter, which has a first leg with a frictional fit holding block for the plate and a second leg with a holding and activation mechanism for the super elastic pronged section. The invention also relates to a method of bone fusion using the plate system.
