Today's guest post comes from our consultant, neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Kaloostian. Dr. Kaloostian's experience with neuronavigation and the placement of spinal screws allows him to comprehensively evaluate post-surgery spinal plaintiffs. Please call the office for more information or to request his CV.
By Paul Kaloostian, MD, FAANS, FACS
Neurosurgery is always a pioneering field, and constantly changing. New technology advancing the field has improved patient outcome and minimized patient morbidity in both brain and spine surgery.
One such advancement is use of neuronavigation guidance for placement of spinal instrumentation. There are numerous systems in place utilizing navigation guidance with all being useful to guide appropriate and safe placement of spinal screws into the appropriate location in order to minimize nerve root and vascular injury.
This method not only allows for safe placement of instrumentation but provides the opportunity to check the final placement of all screws so that no further post-operative imaging would be needed.
In a Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine article, Villavicencio et al. noted, "Three-dimensional fluoroscopic image guidance systems demonstrated a significantly higher pedicle screw placement accuracy than conventional fluoroscopy or 2D fluoroscopic image guidance methods." I have used and currently use neuronavigation guidance for spinal instrumentation and would recommend use of such instrumentation.