By GREGORY ZELLER //
Northwell Health is showing some real spine. Literally.
The New Hyde Park-based health system has become the first in New York State to employ the Teligen Spine Surgical System, a groundbreaking technology designed to help spinal surgeons better see their patients’ vertebrae during procedures ranging from the minimally invasive to the highly complex.
The advanced-visualization system – manufactured by DePuy Synthes, an Indiana-based Johnson & Johnson spinoff focused on orthopaedics – incorporates a 4K high-definition screen and a tiny disposable camera attached to a flexible wire, which is inserted into the surgical site and maneuvered as necessary.
Daniel Sciubba: Take a good look.
While providing unprecedented visualization of internal structures, the Teligen system also reduces the need for numerous X-rays – the old-school, radiation-heavy method of producing “real-time” imagery – and limits the use of image-processing, surgical trays and other cost-generators.
Cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2022, the integrated technology platform made its Northwell debut Dec. 3 at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where Daniel Sciubba, the health system’s senior vice president of neurosurgery, enjoyed a direct line of sight while removing a spinal tumor from a 65-year-old woman.
The surgery attempted to remove the tumor in one piece – a procedure known as an en bloc resection. Such spinal resections are historically difficult, due to the spine’s intricate anatomical structure and its proximity to major blood vessels, internal organs and nerve bundles, and of course the delicate nature of the spinal cord.
“In the past, the issue with taking out a spinal tumor in one piece was that it was hard to see all the cuts to make from one approach,” noted Sciubba, also co-executive director of the Northwell Health Spine Institute. “So, it had to be done in multiple stages.”
What’s your spine: The spine’s complex nature makes surgeries difficult.
Enter the next-generation 4K visualization, which allowed the surgeon and his team to “look around corners within the surgical site,” Sciubba added.
Internal surgeries can be a messy business, of course, but to keep the surgical team’s eyes on the prize, the Teligen camera features a self-cleaning mechanism – “similar to a windshield wiper,” according to Northwell – the keeps the image on the 4K screen as clear as can be.
The health system now anticipates using the cutting-edge Teligen system on other spinal procedures, including less-complex spinal decompressions, discectomies (the surgical removal of abnormal disc material) and spinal fusions.
While less invasive, those procedures are no less risky – but Northwell’s investment in the Teligen system will allow doctors to perform even “the most complex spinal surgeries … in ways that are innovative and pioneering,” according to Sciubba.
“We can do these surgeries in less time, with smaller incisions and less damage to surrounding normal tissues,” the surgeon added. “It allows us to treat patients more safely and efficaciously.”
