This technology will be interesting. In the past, they would only trim the extruded disc material with discectomy. This increases the risk of recurrent herniation. Then, they started to evacuate the disc space as well as they could by reaching in through the annular tear. This reduces recurrent herniations, but hastens collapse.
There are several types of annular closure devices that will be an interesting adjunct to discectomy. Hopefully, this will allow them to leave as much nucleus as possible intact, while solving the problem of recurrent herniations (via the original annular tear.)
Nucore appeared about the same time as another injectable disc nucleus did. Dascor is similar, but instead of flowing the polymer into the cavity, Dascor puts the nucleus material into a balloon that remains in the disc space. We have an iSpine member who had Dascor. Unfortunately, after her surgery, the trial was halted and the company closed it's doors. There is noone from the company standing behind the product to help her. Most of her questions will go unanswered.
To my knowledge, nucore is still running strong. I have meetings with a couple of prominent local surgeons later this month. I'll ask about how nucore is going. If I learn anything about them, I'll post here.
ADR Seeker... thanks for the post.
Mark
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