Stryker’s Spine division has introduced the Tritanium posterior lumbar (PL) cage, a 3D-printed intervertebral body fusion device designed to aid in lumbar spinal fixation for patients with degenerative disc disease, at the 2016 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting.
The Tritanium PL cage is manufactured by 3D printing. The cage is constructed using Stryker’s Tritanium technology; a novel, highly porous titanium alloy material designed for bone in-growth and biological fixation. Stryker’s 3D-printing process is intended to allow for the creation of porous structures that are designed to mimic cancellous bone.
Stryker’s Spine division president, Brad Paddock, says, “Unlike traditional manufacturing techniques, the flexibility of our 3D additive manufacturing capabilities allows us to precisely engineer and produce porous Tritanium devices.”
“Spinal surgeons need a cage that has the capability of bony integration or bony in-growth, as well as radiolucency so that we can evaluate the fusion long term,” says Wellington Hsu, Orthopaedic Surgeon at Northwestern Medical Group (Evanston, USA). “Because Tritanium has favourable radiographic capabilities, as well as the integrative surface technology, that really in my opinion is what I would ask for from an interbody cage.”
Implanted via a posterior approach, the Tritanium PL cage is available in a variety of widths, lengths, heights, and lordotic angles that are designed to adapt to a variety of patient anatomies. Its large lateral windows and open architecture allow visualisation of fusion on CT and X-ray, and its solid-tipped, precisely angled serrations are designed to allow for bidirectional fixation and to maximise surface area for endplate contact with the cage. The Tritanium PL Cage also is designed to minimise subsidence into the endplates.
