X-STOP® IPD® (Interspinous Process Decompression) device is another medgadget recognized by this year’s WSJ Technology Innovation Awards. (Life is easy for us: WSJ did the research, we spread the word.)
Kyphon Inc., the company that purchased rights to the device, explains its indications:
The X-STOP® Interspinous Process Decompression (IPD®) System is the first alternative to conventional spinal stenosis surgery proven to significantly improve symptom severity and physical function.1 The X-STOP device is implanted during a short procedure that usually requires only local anesthesia. And because it’s minimally invasive, the X-STOP IPD procedure is associated with a low rate of complications and rapid recovery.
The X-STOP® Interspinous Process Decompression (IPD®) System is indicated for treatment of patients aged 50 or older suffering from neurogenic intermittent claudication secondary to a confirmed diagnosis
of lumbar spinal stenosis (with X-Ray, MRI and/or CT evidence of thickened ligamentum flavum, narrowed lateral recess and/or central canal narrowing). The X-STOP is indicated for those patients with moderately impaired physical
function who experience relief in flexion from their symptoms of leg/buttock/groin pain, with or without back pain, and have undergone a regimen of at least 6 months of non-operative treatment. The X-STOP may be implanted at
one or two lumbar levels in patients in whom operative treatment is indicated at no more than two levels.
Product page: X-STOP® IPD® System …
More: X-STOP(R) IPD(R) System …
Product brochure (.pdf)…
WSJ: 2007 Technology Innovation Winners and Runners-Up …