Innovative Spinal Surgery to be
Featured in Internet Broadcast from Wake Forest University
Baptist Medical Center
New Surgical Technique
Allows Less Invasive Operation
See It Live October 7, 2003, at 5:00 p.m. EDT
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A new minimally invasive approach
to spinal surgery will be broadcast live on the internet in October from
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The surgery, a posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF), will employ
a new tubular retraction method that requires only a small skin incision
and “splits” the muscle covering the spine to create a small portal through
which surgeons can repair the spinal damage.
The objective of the surgery is to relieve pressure on the nerve that
passes through the space between the vertebrae from the spinal cord.
The pressure is created when the disc that normally fills the space herniates
or ruptures and presses on the nerve root, often resulting in severe
pain in the back, buttocks or leg
The minimally invasive technique allows patients to leave the hospital
sooner, with less post-operative discomfort and quicker recovery and
rehabilitation.
Charles L. Branch Jr., M.D., who helped to adapt the minimally invasive
technique – known as METRx – for PLIF, will perform the surgery. Branch
is professor and chair of neurosurgery at Wake Forest.
A series of dilators is used to open the muscle tissue above the space
between vertebrae to create a portal of only about one inch in diameter.
Conventional open surgery requires an incision through both skin and
muscle of several inches.
With the space between the vertebrae propped open to the normal width,
extraneous bone adjacent to the disc is removed and disc material extracted.
With prepared bone wedges in place, the space is packed with morselized
bone removed earlier. The same procedure is repeated on the other side
of the interbody space, using only the single skin incision.
Over time the bone will solidify and fuse the two vertebrae bodies together.
A permanent metal brace secures the vertebrae while the fusion takes
place. For the surgery in October, Branch will use an innovative device
called a Sextant (because it looks like a navigational sextant), that
requires only one additional skin puncture to set a titanium rod that
anchors the two vertebrae.
Branch uses a microscope to view the surgical site, with a fluoroscope
to guide the placement of metal tools and fixation materials.
Both the METRx and Sextant systems are products of Medtronic Sofamor
Danek, with whom Branch has collaborated extensively over the past several
years. The company will be a sponsor of the October webcast.
“The METRx minimally invasive technology is useful for most herniated disc surgery,
in both the cervical and lumbar areas,” Branch said. “And we are developing its
use in the treatment of tumors, fractures and other spine pathologies.”
The surgery will be broadcast live on the internet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday,
Oct. 7. The session is available to the general public as well as physicians
and other healthcare professionals.
Following the live webcast, the procedure will be archived
for viewing anytime.
