70% Screw Misplacement, NASS's Fall Offensive, and more (Orthopedics This Week)
Screw Misplacement in 70% of Cases?!
Researchers from New York have just presented their paper, “Burying One’s Head in the Sand: Are We Underestimating the Significance of Pedicle Screw Misplacement?” Terry D. Amaral, M.D. is chief of pediatric orthopaedic surgery, at Montefiore Medical Center and assistant professor of surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He tells OTW, “We have ‘come a long way, baby’ as far as fixation, and there is now a push to do all of these surgeries as pedicle screw constructs. More and more we need to make sure that what we are doing is safe. The spinal cord is right next to where we are putting the screws in; we are also working near where the nerve roots exit…if you perforate that area the patient will experience weakness or even paralysis. Then in the front of the spine there are other things to be concerned about, like the aorta, the vena cava, the lungs, etc. Even world renowned surgeons are only attaining accuracy rates of 87-92%. If you have 100 patients and you’ve put screws in 12 vertebrae, that is 24 screws in each patient; so you’re looking at 2,400 pedicl...
