Cervical Disc Implants: Who are the right candidates?

Do you have a patient with degenerative disc disease? The statistics say that YES you probably do: 40% of people over age 40 and 80% of people over age 80 experience degenerative disc disease. But does that make them good candidates for a cervical implant? Surgeons rely on imaging studies to help decide, but now there’s a different, better way: a human spine 3D robotic replica with sensors that calculates, presurgery, what the intervertebral posture and loads will be postsurgery.

The article appears in the journal of Sensors, and states that “The 3D printed spine replica was modified to include an artificial disc and a soft magnetic sensor array. …When the soft magnetic sensor array was integrated within the human spine robotic replica, the artificial neural network had the highest accuracy of 100% to classify five different postures of the robotic spine replica.” It concludes: “All results indicated that the magnetic sensor array has promising potential to generate data prior to invasive surgeries that could be utilized to preoperatively assess the suitability of a particular intervention for specific patients and to potentially assist the postoperative care of people with cervical disc implants.”

 

Read the journal article.

Read the press release.

Other Categories:

• imaging studies

• implantable technology

• pain management

• spinal/spine

• Surgery

• technology/robotics