Advances in Spinal Instrumentation

Instrumentation in spinal surgery.

As a result of rapid advances in the field of spinal instrumentation, the surgeon today has at his disposal many well-designed implants, such as pedicle screws, hooks, rods, plates, and interbody fusion devices. Many of these implants are modular and are used in combination, such as hooks and screws attached to rods, allowing the surgeon flexibility in selecting the appropriate implants to meet...

Advances in preclinical SPECT instrumentation.

Preclinical SPECT of rodents is both in demand and very demanding. The need for high spatial resolution in combination with good sensitivity has given rise to considerable innovation in the areas of detectors, collimation, acquisition geometry, and image reconstruction. Some of the developments described herein are beginning to carry over into clinical imaging as well.

Latest advances in molecular imaging instrumentation.

This review concentrates on the latest advances in molecular imaging technology, including PET, MRI, and optical imaging. In PET, significant improvements in tumor detection and image resolution have been achieved by introducing new scintillation materials, iterative image reconstruction, and correction methods. These advances enabled the first clinical scanners capable of time-of-flight detect...

Recent advances in instrumentation for clinical medicine.

Hybrid Instrumentation in Lumbar Spinal Fusion

Spondylodesis with transpedicular screw fixation is widely used for the treatment of different spine pathologies. Yet a potential conflict exists between the immediate benefit and later consequences or complications of this technique. The term adjacent segment degeneration is used to describe radiologic changes seen at levels adjacent to a previous spine fusion, which do not necessarily correla...