As the science and technology of spine surgery continues to progress, there is a great deal of interest in developing alternatives to conventional “open” spine surgery. The goals of these alternatives are to avoid the surgical exposure, dissection, and retraction of muscles and tissues that is necessary with this type of surgery.
Medtronic, the global leader in spinal instrumentation, has developed the CD HORIZON® SEXTANT® Percutaneous Rod Insertion System. This System allows spine surgeons to stabilize the posterior aspect of the spine with smaller incisions.
Percutaneous Pedicle Screws in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
The CD HORIZON® SEXTANT® Percutaneous Rod Insertion System was designed in order to allow surgeons to connect percutaneously inserted pedicle screws along the posterior aspect of the spine with a rigid rod in order to stabilize the intervening motion segments. This accomplishes the same goals as placing pedicle screw-based spinal instrumentation in the posterior aspect of the spine via a conventional “open” exposure. However, this System has been designed to permit this type of instrumentation without an extensive surgical exposure.
The CD HORIZON® SEXTANT® Percutaneous Rod Insertion System uses very small incisions, but this technique also limits what type of surgery can be performed on the spine. With a percutaneous pedicle screw technique, direct decompression of the neural elements cannot be accomplished. Some decompression of the neural elements is possible by distracting one vertebral body with respect to the other body with this system. However, the surgeon is not able to physically feel how much space is available for the spinal cord and exiting nerve roots. Therefore, a fusion must be the primary goal of a surgical procedure using the CD HORIZON® SEXTANT® Percutaneous Rod Insertion System, and direct decompression of the neural elements via a posterior approach must be unnecessary. There are several spinal disorders that may be amenable to this type of treatment, including certain types of spondylolisthesis, pseudoarthrosis after an anterior interbody fusion or an un-instrumented posterior spinal fusion, and also when certain types of posterior spinal instrumentation is used to augment an anterior interbody fusion.