Study: Magnet-Driven Growing Rods Effective, Save Money

A prospective case series involving researchers from Scotland, England, and Texas has compared the costs of magnet-driven growing rods with those of traditional growing rods for children with early onset scoliosis (EOS). Their work, “Cost Analysis of Magnet-driven Growing Rods for Early-onset Scoliosis at 5 Years,” appears in the January 1, 2019 edition of Spine.

The study involved nine patients with EOS: two idiopathic, one congenital, three syndromic, and three neuromuscular etiologies treated with submuscular insertion of a magnet-driven growing rod (MdGR).

The authors wrote, “…We collected costs incurred with all aspects of care over the lifetime of device (or at least 5 years) from payers’ perspective to compute and report average PC [payer costs] incurred per patient. We performed this cost analysis by comparing the MdGR PC against literature reported PC for CGR [conventional growing rods] at 5 years….”

“There were five single rod (SR) and two dual rod (DR) de novo MdGR insertions, while two patients had conversion of CGR to MdGR. MdGR alone accounted for at least 50% of overall budget. The MdGR was at least 40% more cost-effective in comparison to the CGR…MdGR is a promising novel implant that may eventually become the ‘standard of care’ for certain EOS etiologies.”

Co-author Mohammed Noordeen, D.M., with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex, UK, told OTW, “This was a proof of concept to test the ability of a technology to be innovative and save money. MdGRs were shown to be as effective as traditional growing rods, but there was a savings in social cost and in financial terms. MGR has a place in the armamentarium in the management of EOS as they are effective and cost efficient.”