Pioneering New Spinal Technology

BARCELONA, Spain - March 8, 2019 - PRLog -- For the first time in Spain, a new technology in surgical spinal procedures has successfully been used in patients undergoing cervical fusions. Drs Vicenç Gilete and Bartolomé Oliver of Chiari & Hypermobility Barcelona express their excitement over the potential improvement to surgical time and overall patient outcomes with the new Bendini rod bending system created by US-based spinal solutions company, Nuvasive. According to Dr Gilete, "this new system allows us to place the fusion bars without any manipulation on our part. It is an optically-guided system in which the machine bends the bars to the angles of the patient´s individual anatomy so that the bars fit perfectly into the heads of the screws."

Previously the neurosurgeons would manually bend each rod to mold them to the unique angles of a patient´s cervical spine. This took additional time and was not a perfect technique. Rod bending is typically performed manually using a French bender prior to insertion. Additional bending may be achieved using in situ benders. Inability to engage a lock screw with the screw tulip causes a gap between the rod and the screw, and reduction of the screws to the rods then requires using additional instruments. A study done in 2014 showed that reduction loads placed on pedicle screws during assembly with a rod that does not adequately fit the screw locations can reduce the strength of the screw-bone interface. In that study, a relatively small 5 mm distance between the rod and pedicle screw caused outright screw pullout failure. By precisely bending the rod to match the screw locations, it may be possible to reduce both the loads placed on the screw-bone interface during surgery and the residual post-operative loads after.

"The precision of rod alignment with the screw heads with this device is quite impressive," Dr Oliver comments. "This innovation allows us to reduce the time a patient is in the OR and improves the overall integrity of the fusion going forward."

Chiari & Hypermobility Barcelona, based at Centro Medico Teknon, treats patients from all over the world with craniocervical instability, specializing in patients with connective tissue disorders, such as Ehler-Danlos Syndrome.
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