Jocelyn Idema, DO, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Advanced Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation in Pittsburgh and Washington, Pa., discusses the biggest innovations in spinal technology.
Question: What is the biggest spine technology trend for 2018?
JI: Navigation seems to be the newest trend. [It's] costly for community hospitals and ASCs, easier to afford in teaching hospitals, but both robotic and computerized navigation seems to ensure less malpositioned hardware, although this number is fairly small with the utilization of fluoroscopy and neuromonitoring; its cost/benefit ratio may be upside down.
Q: Where do you see the biggest innovations in implant material?
JI: Tritanium and other nanotechnologies are the newest, innovative 3-D printing technologies that most closely mimic human cancellous bone. Early animal trials and studies have suggested sooner incorporation to fusion. This is imperative in that there is a race for the body to fuse before the hardware fails. Obviously we cannot keep a patient in a brace indefinitely and these types of technologies greatly enhance this process. The sooner we can move a patient, the more compliant the patient will be, the faster return to normal activities and work, the less the patient will lose muscle strength and endurance and overall a patient's quality of life drastically improves.
Q: Where do you see biologics and stem cells in spine headed for 2018 and beyond?
JI: At this time, there are so many different types of biologics that it is difficult to believe that they do what they claim to do as well as the multiple materials to choose from.