World-first 360-degree personalised spine surgery takes place in UK

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Medicrea UNID lab
Orthopaedic surgeon Banjamin Taylor worked with a team of biomedical engineers to plan the surgery and design the instrumentation

Patient-specific titanium instrumentation has been implanted from the front and back, creating the first ever 360-degree personalised spinal surgery.

Orthopaedic surgeon Benjamin Taylor performed the two-stage procedure using Medicrea’s UNiD ASI system at Wellington Hospital, London. ASI stands for Adaptive Spine Intelligence.

Medicrea’s technology was recently used in the world’s first minimally invasive surgery using patient-specific rods.

Prior to this surgery, Taylor worked with the company’s UNiD Lab biomedical engineers to plan the procedure and design four precision-engineered titanium implants.

“The ability to strategically plan and manufacture personalised implants in a controlled iterative process…was a key element in the success of this operation, helping me to simplify and expedite the procedure,” Taylor remarked following the operation.

Before the procedure, Taylor worked with the Lab to turn surgical plans into a fully digital simulation using patient imaging. He then identified the optimal 360-degree surgical strategy, drawing on the ASI technology for guidance.

Using this strategy, the Lab designed bespoke spinal rods and interbody devices

Two-stage 360-degree procedure

During the surgery, Taylor first addressed the patient’s spine through an anterior approach. He inserted three custom cages between the patient’s lumbar vertebrae to restore height to the spine. Sized to form an exact fit between the patient’s vertebrae, the custom implants led to a marked reduction in the operation time required to size and place standard implants.

In the second stage of the operation, Taylor approached the patient’s spine posteriorly. Here, Taylor inserted two patient-specific rods to stabilise the patient’s spine in a predetermined patient-specific alignment. This removed the need to manually bend rods during surgery.

Commenting on the success of the procedure, Taylor said, “Because the implants are scientifically designed using clinical data, I am confident that this patient will continue to see improvements in their quality of life.”


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