Minimally Invasive Direct Thoracic Interbody Fusion Proves Effective for Back Pain

Inspired Spine announced that its study on minimally invasive direct thoracic interbody fusion (MIS-DTIF) has been published and is available on PubMed. MIS-DTIF is a single surgeon procedure that is shown to alleviate back pain in patients with degenerative disk disease or disk herniation. The study included four participants and measured patient-reported pain, surgery time and complications.
 
“Patients reported a significant reduction in back pain after receiving MIS-DTIF,” said Chris Murphy, president of Inspired Spine. “For these patients, it’s not just about finding relief from back pain; it’s about getting their lives back.”
 
Before surgery patients reported an average of 8.8 out of 10 on sliding pain scale. At the first follow up after surgery, patients reported their pain was significantly reduced to 3.5 out of 10. Additional highlights of the study included that surgery time was approximately one hour and the hospital stay was about two days, but the author reports that many patients can go home the next day. On the other hand, traditional one-segment spinal surgery takes four to five hours and many times requires opening of the chest cavity, resulting in a hospital stay of up to five days.
 
MIS-DTIF reduced the risk of complications in the study because its advanced minimally invasive technique eliminates the need to open the chest and makes use of real time biplane fluoroscopy X-ray imaging.
 
MIS-DTIF is a Minnesota-born advancement in thoracic spinal disease management. It has shown to be very advantageous as an advanced minimally invasive spinal fusion alternative, most notably because compared to open surgery it reduces recovery time. Early outcomes and a lack of complications show that MIS-DTIF is a promising procedure warranting further study.
 
Find more information on the study here.