Medacta Launches MySpine for S2-Alar-Iliac Fixation

Medacta, based in Castel San Pietro, Switzerland, has added MySpine for S2-alar-iliac fixation (S2AI) to its MySolutions personalized ecosystem. According to the company, MySpine is a patient-specific screw placement guide that permits the surgeon to establish preoperative 3D planning based on low dose CT scans. “MySpine S2AI is Medacta's solution for a solid pelvis fixation achieved by means of screws which are inserted in the second sacral vertebra (S2) and protrude through the ala until the ilium walls.”

Senior Director of Global Marketing Medacta Gianluca Olgiati told OTW, “Spinopelvic fixation, S2 alar-iliac (S2AI) allows spine surgeons to provide strong bony purchase to pathological spine anatomies suffering from adult degenerative deformity, congenital malformations, or idiopathic scoliosis, as well as unbalances due to fractures. Patients affected by these conditions normally suffer from severe neurogenic back pain that may impair the course of their everyday life. To fix these conditions, S2AI spino pelvic fixation is made by means of orthopaedic screws with wide diameters (typically 9 or 10mm) and significant lengths (up to 100mm).”

Elaborating, Olgiati added, “These screws must cross a very challenging trajectory through narrow bony structures while avoiding any violation of the delicate neuro-vascular network surrounding the pelvis. Accuracy in the placement of S2AI screws is mandatory in order to maximize potential benefits and avoid complications. Therefore, it is normally conducted with significant intraoperative radiation exposure to the patient.”

“With the disruptive MySpine technology, surgeons can preoperatively plan the optimal entry points, the trajectory of these long screws, and anticipate potential complications in surgery. Intraoperatively, the surgeon can avoid the risk of biological tissue impairment, minimize the soft and muscular tissue violation, and avoid massive radiation exposure utilizing the MySpine Patient-Matched Guide and vertebral model.”

More specifically, the company wrote in its press announcements regarding MySolutions that “the MySolutions ecosystem represents Medacta's personalized medicine offering and includes patient-matched surgical instruments, advanced planning and verification tools, augmented reality-based personalized execution, patient pathway optimization, as well as clinical data collection and analysis.”

Furthermore, when paired with Medacta's M.U.S.T. Pedicle Screw System, MySpine S2AI can be used “for those patients requiring long constructs to fix degenerative spine disease as well as deformities, and it is designed to overcome the limits of a potentially insufficient lower spine fixation with current practices…”

“The S2-alar-iliac technique represents an effective solution, as the trajectory within the joint allows for strong bone purchase, maximizing the resistance of the resulting construct and the potential of correction of the spino-pelvic malalignment. The more medial entry points reduce the need of muscle dissection leading to smaller incisions, thus potentially reducing pain for patients when compared to alternative lumbosacral instrumentation. This may eventually result in greater well-being for the patient, who can benefit from a less invasive and more effective surgery.”

OTW asked Olgiati about Medacta’s plans for this product over the next 12 months and he said, “Our goal is to provide surgeons with an alternative solution to accurately place screws for a solid spino pelvic fixation benefiting their patients with a solution specific to their anatomy. We are constantly enhancing our spine offering, with the aim to provide eminent technologies for surgeons and steady solutions for patients who suffer from spino pelvic malalignment and need strong fixation. MySpine S2AI is part of our MySolutions personalized ecosystem, our sophisticated technology offering which we are planning to constantly enrich with new, advanced solutions in the upcoming months.”