SpineJack Heads to India (written by Biloine Young @ OTW)
Vexim, the med-tech company out of Toulouse, France, will soon be marketing its SpineJack product in India. The firm just received the registration certificate for SpineJack and is awaiting the import license from Indian authorities.
Vexim’s President and CEO, Bruce de la Grange, describes his SpineJack product as a titanium implant (5 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length) that covers 80% of spinal column fractures, from vertebrae TH10 to L5. The surgeon inserts SpineJack into a patient’s vertebra via a transpedicular, minimally invasive approach using one or two 5 mm skin incisions.
Surgeons use a specialized set of instruments to prepare the vertebra for the X-ray-guided insertion of one or two implants, depending on the anatomical configuration of the fracture and the degree of reconstruction required. Once they complete this step they inject bone cement into the restored vertebra in order to secure the vertebral structure and relieve the patient’s pain.
De la Grange says that a trained surgeon needs only 25 to 35 minutes to complete the procedure. He said that the patient can expect a very significant reduction in pain immediately after the operation and will generally be discharged from hospital 24 hours later.
The entrepreneur Jacques Essinger founded Vexim in 2006. In July 2009, the company signed an exclusive agreement with Stryker for distribution of the SpineJack in Germany, the UK, Austria and Ireland. SpineJack is CE marked and was first commercialized in mid-2010.