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Advancements in Robotic Spine Surgery: Weighing the Pros and Cons

There are incredible achievements happening in technology and science every day, especially in the world of spinal surgery. One of the most recent developments in spine surgery, using robotic technology in the operating room, has been up for debate among surgeons and spinal specialists, and I’ve been considering the pros and cons of these new treatment options myself. Robotic surgery is considered a minimally invasive procedure in which the surgeon controls the camera and instruments using a console. The surgeon operates the robot while looking through a monitor that allows him to see inside the patient.  Every movement made by the surgeon is mimicked by the robot, allowing for unprecedented control, precision, and access to the human body.   Numerous studies have shown the advantages of robotic technology and the implications it has for the future of medicine.  Overall, the average length of hospital stay for patients undergoing robotic surgery was reduced by 27 percent, and complication rates were reduced by 48 percent.  A recent study published in Head and Neck Oncology shows that a robotic arm can reduce unavoidable tremors in the human hand by filtering out hand movement. And finally, robotic technology is ergonomically desirable, allowing cosmetic benefits

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New Spinal Cord Stimulator for Chronic Back Pain

More than 26 million Americans suffer from Chronic Back Pain (CBP) every year at an estimated cost of more than $100 billion. It can have a devastating effect on the quality of work, sleep, exercise, and other aspects of everyday life for those who suffer from it. Many of these patients can be  helped  significantly with intensive rehab programs or spine surgery, but some select conditions are not amenable to these more main-stream approaches.  For this specific population of patients, there are new and incredible innovations that can be very effective. I recently came across a new device from the Boston Scientific Corporation called the “Precision Spectra Spinal Cord Stimulator.” Spinal Cord Stimulators (SCS) are implanted devices that use “contact points” to deliver electrical pulses to mask pain signals from being delivered to the brain. They have been used for just less than 10 years and are specifically designed to control chronic pain and even motor-function disabilities. Perhaps the biggest advantage of this device is that they can significantly reduce the need for pain medication, which can become highly addictive, expensive, and take a heavy toll on the body. One patient reportedly went from taking 260 milligrams of morphine daily

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