NuVasive, Inc. is shining a spotlight on its recent launch of the Integrated Global Alignment (iGA) platform. The company indicates that the platform is a leap of progress for spine because it integrates procedural technology and tools into one platform to help obtain proper alignment.
“More than a decade ago, NuVasive redefined minimally disruptive spine surgery with the introduction of our revolutionary XLIF technology; the first procedure of its kind designed to safely and reproducibly enable a lateral approach to spine surgery, ” said NuVasive President and Chief Operating Officer Pat Miles in the May 4, 2015 news release. “Today, with the launch of iGA, NuVasive is once again positioned to reshape the market through game-changing innovation and address the next frontier in spine surgery—ALIGNMENT. Proper alignment is the most correlative element of successful, long-term surgical outcomes. With new tools and technology available to us today, NuVasive is taking our ‘know-how’ to the next level to help drive better patient outcomes in spine surgery through the global alignment of the spine with the only integrated surgical platform that allows for intraoperative reconciliation to ensure global alignment is achieved.”
Dr. Regis Haid, Neurosurgeon at Atlanta Brain and Spine Care, said, “There is a growing consensus from academic and surgical communities that pelvic alignment has a profound impact on patient outcomes. Over the years, we have seen incremental improvements in various spine surgical tools, such as pedicle screws, pre-contoured rods and interbody implants, but the factor that has driven the greatest improvement in our understanding of patient outcomes is our realization of the crucial role that our ability to reestablish alignment plays in both early and long-term patient success.”
Products in the platform are designed to help the surgeon calculate alignment parameters with NuvaMap and Nuvaline preoperative planning tools, correct the anterior and posterior columns with comprehensive implant solutions using real-time intraoperative assessment via NuvaMap O.R., and confirm the restoration and preservation of global sagittal alignment postoperatively, again through NuvaMap and Nuvaline.
Pat Miles told OTW, “The iGA platform is an assembly of products focused on the importance of global alignment. In the coming months, our sales team will focus on communicating the benefit of calculating preoperative alignment parameters and the importance of intraoperative reconciliation in confirming accuracy against the preoperative plan. In a year, my hope is that we see pre-surgical planning and reconciliation becoming the norm in both long construct and short construct surgery. It would be great to see the iGA platform help as many surgeons as possible achieve their alignment goals and better, long-term patient outcomes.”
Asked what must change so that more surgeons take preop measures of alignment, Miles noted, “We currently see a growing body of research indicating that proper alignment is one of the most correlative elements of successful, long-term surgical outcomes, however it is an aspect of spine surgery that is often overlooked. Now, NuVasive is not only working to raise awareness of the importance of alignment, but also providing simple new technologies and tools that will provide surgeons the ease to confidently and predictably plan and reconcile alignment in their cases. We believe the simplicity around each integrated element of the platform is the key to surgeon utilization.”
