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3-D Printing in Spinal Surgery

In spinal surgery, advancements in technology and medicine have given doctors new ways to combat conditions affecting the human body. Minimally invasive procedures use small incision for less complex procedures; in robotics, surgeons use robotic arms to carry out a minimally invasive procedures with potentially more accuracy. So what about 3-D printing? Technically, it’s been around since the 1980s, but hasn’t been used in medicine until recent years. Commonly used to support or replace body parts that don’t enter the bloodstream, 3-D printing has the ability to fabricate prosthetic limbs, layer by layer, from the ground up. What is 3-D printing? What is 3-D printing? In medicine, 3-D printing, also referred as additive manufacturing, is the process of using plastic or metal gel to shape a replacement body part based on a patient’s MRI or CT scan. 3-D printing is allowing prosthetics to be produced and personalized in complex shapes including hands and fingers. No longer will these devices cost thousands of dollars, removing much of the financial burden patients and their families may face. “If a parent wanted to purchase a 3-D printer of their own and produce hands for their own child, the cost of the printer and

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Text Neck and Other Pain from Digital Devices

You may be familiar with the term “Tennis Elbow,” but have you ever heard of ailments like “Blackberry Thumb” or “Text Neck”? Digital devices no doubt improve our ability to communicate and pass information, but there are also some negative effects to be wary of. Text Neck, as it is commonly referred to, is one of the most recent tech-related maladies to gain notoriety. It refers to the headaches, arm, shoulder, and neck pains that occur when one spends too much time in the common posture for using cell phones, tablets and e-readers. To show just how prevalent this term is becoming, an initial Google search for Text Neck yielded about 123 million results, whereas only hours later, the number increased to about 126 million results! In addition to headaches and joint pain, people may also experience extreme fatigue and muscle spasms as a result of improper posture while using these devices. Physicians across the nation are seeing these effects manifest in people who are much younger than  one might expect a person suffering from joint or neck pain to be. Scott Bautch, a spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association, notes that “by age 14 approximately 7% of teens are having daily symptoms of back pain,

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