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| Dear
Friends, |
The
NASS meeting is the largest spine
congress there is. I'm proud to be
attending my 3rd NASS meeting and
my 12th medical congress. I wasn't
planning on coming, but after last
week's trip to see Doctors Bitan
and Buettner-Janz in NY, I realized
that this contact I have with the
surgeons and the industry is what
makes it possible for me to help
spine patients more effectively.
After some hasty planning, I'm here
in Seattle... I hope the hotel is
not on skid row! I'll be blogging
the congress as best I can. These
meeting are very busy, fast moving,
and non-stop. We'll see how this
goes. If there is a particular technology
that you are interested in, please
send me a private message or post
your question on the iSpine
discussion forum.
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Sincerely, |
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Mark |
| PS.
I apologize in advance for the funky format.
I realize why I have not done this in the
past. It's the end of day 2 and I'm arriving
back to the hotel around 11 pm. Each day
goes from 7am till 11pm, absolutely non-stop.
I'm going to start the blog with tonight's
event and fill in the blanks as I can.
Below, I'll put a brief log of entries
as I add them. |
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Technology
Disclaimer
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The
devices, procedures, etc... discussed on this
site are in various stages of development. While
some have been proven safe and efficacious, are
FDA approved and widely available; others may
be in a wide range of developmental stages. Some
are proven and are just waiting for FDA approval
of the manufacturing process, which is expected
very soon. Some are exciting ideas that may prove
to be very bad ideas; possibly even harmful disasters.
Some represent brilliant ideas that may ultimately
become life-saving products while others will
never make it to the marketplace. Even for the
great products, development / testing / approval
process may take years or even decades. There
is no guarantee that any information presented
here is correct. Items discussed here may never
be available to the patient community. Medical
decisions should not be made based on information
found here.
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iSpine
Lending Library !!!
NASS 2005
and 2006 Proceedings: Symposia
Handouts,
Abstracts of Podium Presentations and Poster Presentations
click
here for the lending library
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Day
1 - Wednesday September 27, 2006
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Day
2 - Thursday September 28, 2006
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Post 1: Dynesys
Dinner at the Experience Music Project
What
a cool
venue... a music museum at the Seattle
Center... just a few yards away from the Space
Needle. . This was a very interesting and productive
evening. We
were treated to an overview of dynesys
experience and a panel discussion with
some VERY heavy hitters. The meeting
was chaired by Dr. Rick Delamarter. Dynesys experience
is quite large now, with over 25,000 implantations
worldwide. The first implantation was in 1994, by
the inventor, Dr. Gilles Dubios, in France. It
was released for use in Europe in 1999. It was released
for use AS A FUSION DEVICE in the US in 2005. For
non-fusion applications in the US, it is still
in clinical trial with the study population complete
and in the follow-up phase. A hydroxyapitite coated
screws are now available to improve fixation and
reduce the incidence of screw loosening. The format
of the meeting was excellent, with ample time for
open discussion and Q&A in between presentations.
The panel members also presented real world cases
as an exercise in patient selection for the attending
surgeons. There was much interesting discussion
about the appropriateness of various solutions,
and much interesting discussion about various surgical
techniques. One interesting exchange had Dr. Reginal
Davis, chief of spine surgery at Johns Hopkins
discussion adjacent level degeneration for multi-level
lumbar fusions. He put the number at 25% revisions
within 5 years for fusions with rigid fixation.
I was able to ask about the revisability of Dynesys.
In the ADR world, we used to hear, "no problem,
if it doesn't work, we can always pop it out and
do a fusion." We now understand that this cavalier
attitude was inappropriate and that if you need revision
after ADR surgery, you have a serious problem. Apparently,
revisions of Dynesys are somewhat rare, but the small
handful that was done among the panel members were
very easy surgeries with good results. Without the
anterior approach issues, it's somewhat straightforward.
Minimally invasive approach, remove old screws,
insert bigger screws and fusion hardware. Not quite
a freebie... but nothing like repeat anterior spine
surgery. |
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Day
3 - Friday September 29, 2006
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Day
4 - Saturday September 30, 2006
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