For Immediate Release
Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster
(310) 206-1960
[email protected]
UCLA DOCTORS PERFORM FIRST-EVER U.S. PROSTHETIC IMPLANT REJOINING PATIENT'S PELVIS TO SPINE USING HOWMEDICA CUSTOM DEVICE
The first custom sacrum prosthetic implant operation of its kind in the United States has been successfully performed by three UCLA doctors.
The doctors have successfully rejoined a patient's pelvis to her lumbar spine with an innovative prosthetic device produced by Howmedica, Inc., of Rutherford, New Jersey. The doctors implanted a prosthesis in the patient, a 49-year-old woman (Tulare, Calif.) whose sacrum -- known as the tailbone -- had been destroyed by a giant cell tumor.
The sacrum is located at the base of the spine and connects to the pelvis on the left and right side to the lower (lumbar) spine. Without the sacrum, nothing supports the spine.
The custom Vitallium(r) alloy device inserted by UCLA doctors bridges the left and right side of the patient's pelvis in place of the missing sacrum to support the spine. Much new technology went into the process of creating the device.
The UCLA doctors surgically removed the diseased portion of the patient's pelvis and sacrum, attached the custom implant to the remainder of her pelvis and then attached the prosthesis to the remainder of her spine with custom pedicle screws and connecting rods attached to the first, second, third and fourth lumbar vertebrae.
Prior to this new procedure, doctors had limited means of securing the spine to the pelvis for tumors of the sacrum and spine, thus leaving patients incapacitated.
UCLA doctors say this new procedure will help patients with both benign and cancerous tumors of the sacrum, both fairly rare conditions.
Due to the patient's tumor, her spine had virtually disconnected from her pelvis, leaving her immobile and bedridden for six months. Any motion caused her excruciating pain.
"This patient never would have been able to get out of bed again," said Dr. Jeffrey Eckardt, the UCLA orthopaedic oncology surgeon who pioneered the procedure. Eckardt spent the past 18 years researching ways to help patients afflicted with bone destruction due to benign and cancerous tumors.
With this new procedure and prosthesis, the patient now sits up in bed and is able to stand up for the first time in over six months. UCLA doctors feel confident she will eventually walk again. Her expected recovery will take several months.
The prosthesis, designed by Howmedica from computer-generated film in Kiel, Germany, started with a CT scan taken at UCLA Medical Center of the patient's lower spine and pelvis.
From the CT scan, Howmedica created a life-size model of the patient's pelvis and lower spine. Eckardt then marked the model where he intended to remove the bone. The marked model was returned to Germany, where Howmedica technicians designed a fabricated custom pelvic sacral replacement prosthesis.
Replacing the majority of the patient's sacrum and fifth lumbar vertebrae with a prosthesis and attaching the rest of her spine required the expertise of several surgical disciplines: spinal surgery, tumor surgery and plastic surgery. UCLA spinal surgeon Dr. Rick Delamarter and UCLA plastic surgeon Drs. James Watson collaborated with Eckardt in the nine-hour surgery.
-UCLA-
Attention Reporters: UCLA has models and photographs illustrating the procedure and prosthesis.
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