Pedicle-lengthening osteotomy for the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis: Pre-clinical study of novel orthopedic devices

Abstract

The growing number of surgical interventions in patients with spinal degenerative diseases and spinal cord injuries necessitate the development and implementation of innovative technologies for spinal surgery. Successful pre-clinical tests assessing the safety and reliability of the proposed devices are a major step towards further routine use of the novel technologies. In this report, we describe preclinical studies on screw implants designed to length vertebral pedicles in the lumbar spine and provide indirect decompression of the nerve structures by increasing the transverse size of the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen. The results demonstrated high reliability of the developed device, its potential effectiveness in eliminating lumbar spinal stenosis, and only minor negative effects on the lumbar spine function. Altogether, our study made it possible to start a pilot clinical project on using this technology in patients with symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis.