San Diego-based NuVasive, Inc., has always been one of the more innovative companies in the spine industry and, at October’s annual meeting of the North American Spine Society (NASS), their booth showed the rise of expandables, new materials and systems in the company’s portfolio of surgeon solutions.
NuVasive’s Commitment to Expandables, New Materials and Systems
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“Now more than ever, NuVasive is expanding our portfolio with an unprecedented number of product launches covering spine’s leading procedures, materials, expandables and systems,” said Matt Link, executive vice president, strategy, technology and corporate development of NuVasive.
“NuVasive is expanding its lateral procedural solutions with Lateral ALIF [anterior lumbar interbody fusion], XLIF [lateral lumbar interbody fusion] Crestline and Lateral MAS Fixation, enabling surgeons to treat pathologies from T6-S1 for true, lateral single-position surgery. The Lateral ALIF procedure is designed to provide direct access to L5-S1 with the patient in a lateral decubitus position, with the characteristics of a traditional supine ALIF….”
“The Company’s AMS [Advanced Materials Science] portfolio is designed to deliver enhanced osseointegration and biomechanics through innovative implant design. With leading advanced materials in surface, structure and imaging characteristics, the portfolio includes the Company’s recently launched Modulus XLIF, its 3D-printed porous titanium implant, porous PEEK (polyetheretherketone) technology following last month’s acquisition of Vertera Spine, including the COHERE cervical interbody fusion device….”
LessRay – a Best Spine Technology Award Winner
LessRay, which won the Orthopedic This Week’s Best Technology in Spine award in 2015, was front and center in NuVasive’s booth at NASS. Said Matt Link, “LessRay, which is comprised of a propriety software algorithm and hardware components, is designed to help address overexposure to radiation in hospital operating rooms (O.R.), particularly in the case of minimally invasive spine surgery…”
NuVasive has also embraced the 3D printing revolution—which has opened the design possibilities of implants and instruments. Modulus XLIF is one example. According to the company: “Modulus XLIF is a 3D-printed, porous titanium implant developed to create an organic architecture that mimics the porosity and stiffness of bone for reduced stress shielding.”
“The device’s optimized architecture also leads to improved imaging characteristics compared to traditional titanium interbody devices. The TLX interbody system is a market-leading solution that is inserted through a conventional transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) approach…”
As Link told OTW, “The unveiling of our lateral solutions and advanced technologies was extremely successful. We had overflow attendance at our surgical innovation lab Thursday morning highlighting Lateral ALIF, Modulus, and LessRay. Our team was excited to follow this with our celebration of leading lateral with XLIF Thursday night and mark our new launches with over 200 people in attendance.
Asked about comments they received at NASS, Link said, “Modulus and Lateral ALIF highlighted our booth discussions throughout the event. Many surgeons were excited about our new retractor system for Lateral ALIF and inquired about upcoming trainings and commercial availability to begin utilizing the procedural solution.”
“The Modulus demo received a lot of attention and was standing room only with surgeons expressing their interest in our design. The unique surface, structure, and imaging characteristics made it an exciting titanium offering for our surgeons.”
Link added, “We’re not done yet, we are just getting started expanding our lateral solutions to reshape the spine industry.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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