Jeffrey Carlson, MD, performed the first case with the Align Peek TLIF and PLIF intervertebral cage, his practice said Dec. 6.
The case was completed Nov. 11 at Mercy Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News, Va., according to a news release. His patient was a 39-year woman with spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and left side disc protrusion. She met all recovery benchmarks and was off pain medication 10 days after surgery.
Dr. Carlson designed the Align Peek with medical engineers. The cage is narrow and bulleted, and it is designed for minimally invasive surgery.
"I wanted to create a bulleted cage to powerfully distract the disc space, narrow the width to minimize the retraction on the nerve, keep my surgical field small and allow better visibility during surgical insertion," Dr. Carlson said in the release. "All of this while manufacturing a cage that would be transparent during any radiographic procedure. It truly is a win-win for both the patient and the spine surgeon, because it allows the surgeon to be very precise, the surgical incision to be quite small, and while the implant has radiographic markers to indicate its presence, it is translucent on x-ray."
Dr. Carlson is a spine surgeon with Orthopaedic & Spine Center in Newport News. He joined in 1999.