Stem Cell Saturday

Saturday, June 25, is dedicated to a deep (and practical) dive into the ever expanding world of stem cell therapies for spinal care. Appropriately, the dive will occur at the balmy seaside Fiesta Americana Grand Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico.

The session is part of the larger Innovative Techniques in Spine Surgery Symposium which is scheduled for June 23-25, 2011. Organizers Frank Phillips, M.D. (Professor, Director, Section of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Rush University Medical Center), Todd Albert, M.D. (Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Jefferson University Hospitals), and Alex Vacarro, M.D. (Professor and Attending Surgeon of Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery Jefferson University Hospitals) have added the Stem Cell Saturday session as well as an extended discussion of spine care in this era of healthcare reform titled “Spine in a Post Reform World” (see text box).

This is the 8th annual Innovative Techniques in Spine Surgery Symposium, the 7th in Los Cabos.

While the full program is available at http://www.stegroup.org/event.html, we wanted to highlight two sessions in particular, the Stem Cell Saturday session and Walter Eisner’s Thursday session on the changes that have swept through the spinal surgery community over the past two years. While we conveniently tag this period as “Post-Reform”, it is actually more comprehensive than that.

The economics of the practice of spine surgery are changing rapidly and in ways that clearly will benefit some and disadvantage others. While Eisner, who has written extensively on these topics for Orthopedics This Week, will moderate and open up his reporter’s notebook to talk about this past Year of Reform, Ed Dougherty, Joanne Wuensch and James Robinson, Ph.D., will give their highly informed perspectives from Washington to Wall Street.

There is no doubt in my mind that the session on healthcare reform and the changing economics of spine care will be extraordinary with enthusiastic audience participation.

New Technology and Technique Review

The Los Cabos meeting has always presented excellent reviews of new and upcoming surgical techniques and technologies and this year is no exception. Specifically, speakers will be presenting studies and clinical experiences with:

• Oxygenated Scaffolds for Fusion
• NanOss Bioactive Scaffolds
• MIS Posterior Lumbar Decompression
• MIS TLIF for Spondylolisthesis
• MIS for Spinal Deformity
• MIS Posterior Cervical Surgery
• MIS for Trauma
• MIS ACDF for Multi-level Stenosis/HNP
• Lateral TDR
• Motion Preserving Implants including: Prestige, ProDisc, PCM, Cervicore, Discover and M-6
• New Concepts in Post-Operative Pain Management
• Hydrogel Applications in MIS
• Stand-Alone Interbody for Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion – no Plates!
• And much more

Stem Cell Saturday

Sigurd Berven, M.D. (Associate Professor University of California, San Francisco) and Carl Lauryssen, M.D. (Co-Director of Spine Research and Development at Olympia Medical Center and the first neurosurgeon to inject stem cells into a human spinal cord as part of an FDA trial) are largely responsible for organizing Stem Cell Saturday.

Leading off is an excellent overview that Ira Fedder, M.D. (orthopedic surgeon with Towson Orthopaedic Associates) has prepared regarding all manner of stem cell products, many of which are in the market currently or are in clinical study.

One of the key topics at the session will be to categorize and explore a clinical model for using trophic implants (like stem cells) as well as diving (there’s that metaphor again) into the various regulatory considerations.

There is even a section reviewing the latest in using stem cells for disc rehydration and spinal cord trauma cases!

Below is the agenda for the Stem Cell Saturday session:

For more information and to register, please log onto the following website: http://www.stegroup.org/event.html