The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has issued a guidance which recommends the availability of Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) to all patients suffering from chronic neurologic pain for a minimum of 6 months after note benefiting from conventional treatment for pain management. Before implantation, the patients would go through a trial of the treatment. The guidance is a ray of hope for patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS). In this therapy, electric pulses are sent to electrodes attached to a fully implanted neurostimulator battery. They interrupt the pain messages sent to the brain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared US Spine’s Preference 2 Complex Spine System™ for use in the United States. With this approval, US Spine makes an entry into the deformity and trauma market. Designed by some of the leading spine surgeons for the treatment of complex spinal conditions, the system is featured by a number of new components that include hooks, screws and rods. The anchoring implants in the system are featured by Helical Flange® Closure mechanism that reduces cross threading drastically and eliminates head splay.

OmniGuide Inc., has introduced the the first flexible CO2 laser scalpel for neurosurgery, the new BeamPath NEURO fiber. It provides surgeons with a precise, no-touch microsurgical tool for various central nervous system (CNS) procedures. It is designed for operating near structures that are critical and difficult to access. Besides, it minimizes thermal injury to adjoining healthy tissues of spine or brain. Neurosurgeons can, now, perform dissection, debulking and micro-vascular coagulation with precision.

The European Commission has granted orphan drug designation to Cethrin developed by Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc., for the treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). The drug had received the same status from FDA in 2005. Currently being tested for restoration of sensory and motor function, Cethrin is in Phase-II of its clinical trial.
The designation provides the drug with market exclusivity for a period of 10 years in the EU (7 years in the U.S). The Commission considered SCI as one of the rare and critical conditions lacking effective therapies.

DePuy Spine Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, has launched a new minimally invasive spine system called the VIPER™2 Pedicle Screw Fixation System (VIPER2). The system offers comprehensive instrumentation and implant options that can be used on a wide range of spinal pathologies including deformity, trauma, tumor and degenerative disc disease. VIPER2 is the first and only complete minimally invasive rod and pedicle screw system that can be used to perform minimally invasive spinal fixation across the length of the entire thoracolumbar spine (T1 to Pelvis), with rods of any curvature and lengths from 30 to 480 mm.

Surgeons are using custom-made, FDA-approved device, STARband, to begin the cranial shaping process of children below 18 months of age diagnosed with craniosynostosis. Craniosynostosis is a condition that leads to premature fusion of the cranial sutures, or fontanels, causing problems with normal brain and skull growth, which can result in developmental delays, visual impairment and misaligned ears, eyes, and jaws. Orthomerica Products Inc.’s STARband helmets, which are worn 23 hours daily for three to six months, channel head growth by applying constant and gentle pressure on raised areas of the head, while leaving room for growth in depressed areas.

Researchers at Northwestern University have come up with a nano-engineered gel that has been shown to curb the formation of scar tissue at the site of spinal injuries, thereby allowing the spinal chord fibers to regenerate. The gel has to be injected into the spinal chord as a liquid, which then turns into a scaffold, supporting the new nerve fibers.

In a six hour surgery, doctors in the Sir Gangaram hospital in India have removed what might possibly be the world’s largest brain tumour from the skull of a middle-aged woman.

Review of literature shows that the intracranial tumour measuring 16cmx10cmx8cm is possibly the world’s largest such tumour, Dr. Manish Vaish, part of the neuro-surgery team which carried out the operation told reporters.

The tumour was extending onto both sides of the brain and infiltrating and totally obstructing the main drainage channel of the blood from the brain.

Full story here.