The Si-Bone Ifuse minimally invasive sacroiliac joint fusion implant system has been used in more than 25,000 procedures worldwide, according to a company release. This total is helped by the increase in awareness of the sacroiliac joint as a pain generator and because of increased insurance coverage, the release states. Recently, Healthcare Service Corporation (HCSC), the fourth largest commercial health plan in the USA, established an exclusive coverage policy for Ifuse for Blue Cross Blue Shield participants in the US states of Texas, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The system has also been featured the 50th peer-reviewed article scientifically analysing the system. Spine has published “Predictors of Outcome in Conservative and Minimally Invasive Surgical Management of Pain Originating from the Sacroiliac Joint – a Pooled Analysis”.
The pooled analysis study included 423 patients from the three combined multicentre prospective trials, two of which were randomised controlled trials, in which 97 patients received non-surgical management (NSM) and 326 patients received sacroiliac joint fusion with system from 2013 to 2015.
Overall, positive effectiveness, durability and opioid user reduction responses were much higher in the implant group compared to the NSM group. In the NSM group, there were no predictors of improved outcomes. In contrast, in the implant group, smoking and opioid use were predictive of somewhat smaller improvements in pain relief and disability whereas higher patient age and longer duration of pain were predictive of larger improvements. Although statistically significant, the difference in treatment responses in these groups were clinically unimportant; that is, all subgroups had clinically large improvements after sacroiliac joint fusion with Ifuse Implants, the release states.
