Surgical spinal alignments usually involve positioning high-strength metal rods within the spines of patients. As anyone who has witnessed ortho surgeries will tell you, the physicians can be mistaken for looking like they’re working on your old Chevy. In preparation for alignments, the rods have to be manually bent to match the patient’s native anatomy. This is both time consuming and physically demanding, essentially making the surgeon the last part of the rod’s manufacturing process. Medicrea, a company with offices in France and U.S., just received FDA clearance to begin offering pre-shaped patient specific rods direct to ortho surgeons.
The rods are really part of a system that includes software to allow physicians to input patients’ radiological scans and define the shape of the rods. The data is received by the company through the Internet’s tubes and the rods are manufactured to the doctor’s exact specifications.
Here’s a company video showing the current process and showing off the new offering:
Product page: UNiD…
Announcement: FDA Clears World’s First Patient-Specific Spinal Rod…
