Spine surgeons in Minnesota, Colorado and Indiana were the first in the U.S. to perform cases with Medtronic's newly approved Midas Rex high-speed drills.
The surgeons were Gregory Poulter, MD, of Indianapolis-based OrthoIndy; Sharad Rajpal, MD, of Boulder (Colo.) Neurosurgical & Spine Associates; and Eiman Shafa, MD, of Minneapolis-based Twin Cities Spine Center.
The drills, integrated with the Mazor spine robot, are designed to improve precision, disc-prep access and navigation, according to Medtronic. The first three cases were an OLIF360 single-position surgery, an L2-3 decompression fusion and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, and a minimally invasive TLIF with bilateral instrumentation using an expandable cage.
"One additional advantage is the versatility of the system," Dr. Rajpal said in a Feb. 16 news release. "Surgeons can easily integrate the Mazor robotic guidance system into their current workflows — whether it's using a preoperative planning CT with intraoperative fluoroscopy or using an O-arm for scanning and planning altogether in the operating room."
The FDA provided clearance for the Midas Rex drills in December.