PARIS & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SpineGuard (FR0011464452 – ALSGD), an innovative company that designs, develops and markets disposable medical devices intended to make spine surgery safer, announced today a co-development partnership with Zavation for the integration of its Dynamic Surgical Guidance (DSG™) technology into Zavation’s pedicle screw system.
Zavation is an employee-owned medical device company based in Jackson, Mississippi, which designs, develops, manufactures and distributes spine products that provide comprehensive medical solutions to improve and enhance quality of life for patients around the world.
SpineGuard’s DSG technology will be embedded into Zavation’s pedicle screw system to provide unprecedented accuracy, enhance spine surgery work flow, and match healthcare economic trends. This co-development partnership with Zavation represents the first partnership with a U.S.-domiciled spine company and is a key milestone in SpineGuard’s progression toward the launch of its smart screw platform in the U.S. market, the largest in the world.
“We are delighted to partner with Zavation for the swift introduction of dynamically guided screws into the US market. Our early interaction is extremely promising, as our two companies are moving at the same pace,” said Pierre Jérôme, CEO and Co-founder of SpineGuard. “This partnership will provide us with a beachhead for future expansion as our enabling technology gains increased exposure and triggers new revenue streams.”
Jeffrey Johnson, President of Zavation, said, “The combination of Zavation’s pedicle screw system and SpineGuard’s innovative technology creates a new option for spine surgeons. Together, our companies are able to offer surgeons a product that aids in their effort to achieve positive results for their patients. While the professional healthcare community is excited about our ‘smart screw,’ the ultimate benefit is, of course, to the patient undergoing spinal surgery. We at Zavation are honored to have been chosen as SpineGuard’s first co-development partner for the U.S. market. This partnership dovetails perfectly with Zavation’s mission of enhancing quality of life for patients worldwide.”
“Integrating the Dynamic Surgical Guidance technology with pedicle screws will greatly optimize the workflow and accuracy, and reduce radiation exposure for surgeons in both the traditional and MIS surgical settings. Not only will the Smart Screw allow for active real time guidance breach-avoidance through the pedicle, but it will also provide unprecedented feedback and confidence in the ultimate fixation of the screw itself,” said Larry T. Khoo, M.D., Neurological Surgeon, SMISS Executive Board, Los Angeles, California, USA.
“The Smart Screw technology is an opportunity to further use the Dynamic Surgical Guidance platform to improve our ability to place pedicle screws safely, especially in a MIS setting. The benefits of this technology are far-reaching. The Smart Screw has the potential to influence many aspects of pedicle screw placement—accuracy, decreased radiation exposure, and improved bone/screw fixation to name a few,” said John I. Williams, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA.
About SpineGuard®
Co-founded in 2009 by Pierre Jérôme and Stéphane Bette, former executives at Medtronic Sofamor-Danek and SpineVision, SpineGuard’s mission is to make spine surgery safer and its primary objective to establish its FDA-cleared and CE-marked PediGuard® device as the global standard of care for safer screw placement in spine surgery. Co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., and Alain Vanquaethem, Biomedical Engineer, PediGuard is the world’s first and only handheld device capable of alerting surgeons to potential pedicular or vertebral breaches. Real-time feedback is provided via audio and visual signals. Over 36,000 procedures have been performed with PediGuard worldwide. Several studies published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals have demonstrated that PediGuard detects 98% of pedicle breaches, presents an average screw placement accuracy of 97% (vs. 93% for surgical navigation), provides threefold fewer pedicle perforations than with the free-hand technique and a threefold reduction in neuromonitoring alarms. It also limits radiation exposure by 25-30% and decreases by 15% the time for pedicle screw placement. The company also focuses on developing and exploring other applications for its Dynamic Surgical Guidance technology platform. SpineGuard has offices in San Francisco and Paris. For further information, visit www.spineguard.com.
