What happened at NASS this year?
Spoiler: It was less "spine-tingling breakthroughs" and more "spine-tingling hangovers from ghost tours." Let's dive in, shall we?
The Exhibit Hall: Where Innovation Meets Free Swag
Picture this: A massive hall packed with booths hawking the latest in fusion tech, motion preservation, and gadgets that promise to fix your back without actually fixing your life choices. Centinel Spine was out here conquering motion like they were playing Twister on a surgical table—beyond fusion, indeed! Brainlab had their fancy imaging setups, making surgeons feel like they're in a sci-fi movie, while CGBIO was signing deals faster than you can say "regenerative biomaterials." I snagged a stress ball shaped like a vertebra that I'll probably lose in my hotel room. Pro tip: If you're not collecting enough branded pens to build a mini spine model, you're doing it wrong.
The Sessions: Science, Stats, and a Side of Snooze
The Best Papers session on Saturday was the highlight—or lowlight, depending on your caffeine intake. We had groundbreaking research on how nicotine and cannabis mess with bone healing (shocker: not great for your fusion game). One paper dove into surgi...
