Spine device company ApiFix® Ltd., is touting an initiative which sees it helping the parents of children from Australia, Canada and the United States who have Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) to identify spine surgeons in Europe and Israel who have adopted the ApiFix® system.
Background
Scoliosis surgery is the most invasive procedure in spine. The average procedure fuses 10 vertebrae together using 20 screws, resulting in significant and permanent loss of spine mobility. Not only that, but procedures can last many hours, cost up to $100,000 and leave significant scars.
Then along comes ApiFix Ltd., gaining CE mark approval for its new system as recently as 2013. Headquartered in Israel, ApiFix® has developed a non-fusion minimally invasive treatment alternative for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). You can read more about the system here, but in effect it’s a significantly less invasive system that allows a patient’s spinal curvature to effectively progressively correct itself by advancing by a notch or two under physio. The implant gradually “educates” the spine into a correct position and “remembers” and reinforces each correction made. Mainly though, the system allows the soft tissues to adapt and accommodate to incremental corrections.
A clinical study of The ApiFix® System led by Prof. Dr. Floman, past President of the Israel Spine Society, was published this year in the peer-reviewed medical journal Scoliosis, which concluded that “there are many drawbacks to the current gold standard of AIS surgery, which are almost nonexistent with the use of ApiFix.”
So there we have it… the ApiFix system is approved for sale in Europe and seems to be setting a new standard for correcting scoliosis in children and adolescents. If you were Apifix, wouldn’t you want to point the parents of sufferers in the direction of your customer base?
Company comments
“There is an acute need for an alternative to today’s standard for scoliosis correction in children and adolescents, which is the most aggressive and invasive procedure in spine surgery,” said Uri Arnin, CEO. “Therefore we are grateful to be able to introduce the parents of children with AIS to spine surgeons who have adopted ApiFix and are treating patients in countries where ApiFix is now approved for use.”
Physician comments
“The scoliosis curve correction at up to three years follow-up is substantial for the children who have been treated with the less-invasive ApiFix procedure. We are extremely proud to be able to offer this innovation to children and adolescents from 10 to 17 years of age,” said Prof. Dr. Yizhar Floman.
Source: ApiFix, Ltd.
published: December 17, 2015 in: News, Spine, Technology