Unleashing Surgical Potential: A Custom STUD for ALIF Technique Advancement
Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF) is a spinal surgery that drastically transforms the lives of patients with debilitating pain caused by degenerated intervertebral discs. By removing these damaged discs through a carefully orchestrated abdominal incision and then seamlessly placing a bone graft and/or implant, ALIF promotes fusion between adjacent vertebrae, resulting in pain relief and a stabilized spine.
The expertise required to perform this intricate procedure proficiently and achieve positive patient outcomes can’t be understated. However, cadaveric training in ALIF technique is less than ideal. Most surgeons have already mastered tissue dissection, retraction, traversing the abdomen, and discectomies. In these cadaveric labs, surgeons have to spend unnecessary time performing each of these steps when the emphasis and focus should be placed on the implant placement and insertion techniques.
A Challenge to Overcome
One of our clients recently sought our assistance in streamlining and standardizing the training process for surgeons using their pioneering ALIF implant. They wanted a model that would serve as one of the best spinal surgery training aids with a pre-exposed abdomen and a spine already prepared with the discectomy, eliminating the need for these time-consuming steps typically involved with traditional cadaver training.
With this synthetic cadaver, they could get straight to showing a trained surgeon the features of their implant without wasting time and effort.
A Much-Needed Solution
Upon receiving our customer's request to streamline their training process, we uploaded their implant’s CAD files into our ALIF surgical training model, allowing us to virtually "cut" the annulus. We then produced a printed model that seamlessly simulates the already completed discectomy, eliminating unnecessary steps for experienced surgeons during efficient ALIF surgical training sessions.
Continuing to focus on the customer's concern for efficiency, we devised a way to eliminate the need for anterior incision during training. By adding an open exposure, our advanced model for spine surgery training can be used multiple times for each disc space, enabling training for multiple surgeons with the same model.
Driving Results That Make an Impact
Despite the demand for high patient point of care, surgeons and sales representatives have limited time to train on new devices and truly master them for real-life scenarios. A model that can be used anywhere to get straight to the point of learning without wasted effort is critical to advancing surgical training.
Creating custom anatomical models is at SurgiSTUD's core, reflecting our skill and innovation, as well as our passion for facilitating surgical education and improving results for patients. We constantly evolve our models to exceed our customers' expectations. Whether you want to save time and money, or drive efficiency, SurgiSTUD has the answer. To learn how we can help with your needs, contact us today.
