Gamma Knife Central


Day after Memorial day in the "bunker" under Kettering Medical Center (Dayton Ohio). We are performing 4 Gamma Knife procedures today. Everything is smooth. It is good to get back into the Gamma Knife routine. I have been concentrating on a bunch of new advanced spine procedures recently. Thursday we are going to place the first two Fernstrom balls. I am one of only five surgeons in the country doing this procedure. This procedure is a "motion sparing" type of lumbar fusion. That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, except that this is how the device is classified by the FDA. The idea is to replace a removed nucleus pulposis (disc herniation) with a cobalt chrome sphere that restores the normal disc motion and preserves disc height. The original device, the Harmon sphere, made of vitallium, resulted in interbody fusions in some cases, hence the classification as a fusion device. Of course that was between 1959 and 1965. Nowadays we have a few new tricks up our sleeves ... watch this space.

Posted: Tue - May 30, 2006 at 08:57 AM          

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