Spine Staple May Eliminate Surgery for Scoliosis

A new spine staple is designed to be implanted in a minimally invasive procedure in children who are at high risk of needing surgery in adolescence for scoliosis, since it can slow progression of the spine curvature or actually decrease the curvature as the child grows.

The spine staple was developed by scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (OH, USA; www.cincinnatichildrens.org) in the hope of eliminating the need for thousands of invasive open surgeries in children each year. Under a licensing agreement, E-Prime (Blue Ash, OH, USA) is helping to advance the development of the staple in collaboration with Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

In the new procedure, surgeons make three or four one-inch incisions on the side of the body, under the arm. About six spine staples are inserted through these ports into the spine, across the growth plates. Loss of blood is minimal. Although current surgical techniques have excellent long-term success rates, they involve extensive exposure of the spine, frequent blood transfusions, significant postoperative pain, lengthy hospitalization, and slow rehabilitation.

"Surgery will be minimally invasive, safe, relatively simple, and at lower cost than current procedures,” explained Eric Wall, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Cincinnati Children's and co-inventor of the staple. "It will reduce pain and length of hospital stay. And, it will help surgeons, for whom current techniques are like building a ship in a bottle.”




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Cincinnati Childrens Hospital