I wish I would have seen this earlier... I dropped Bertagnoli off at the airport and could have asked him. Not knowing the answer, I'll be happy to make one up... (actually I don't do that... I'll post my thoughts... could be wrong, take it for what it's worth.)
Per my discussion with Bertagnoli, posterior elements are NOT replaced by this system. I believe that this system is much more tolerant of issues in the posterior elements than anterior ADR because, being a posterior surgery and adding a stabilization system, they have great license to do more decompression and deal with issues that cannot be addressed via anterior ADR surgery. However, the system still needs to have stability. My understanding is that this is not for people with significant spondy conditions. Degenerative spondy (instability related to collapsing disc spaces and the "detensioning" that goes along with it) is OK, as it is with ADR. Isthmic spondy (from true structural deficiencies like pars defect) will not be addressed... we'll need a more comprenensive replacement for the posterior elements for that.
Again... this is new... I can be wrong... I'll let you know what I hear. I'm just sharing something I think you'll find interesting.
Mark
|