METRx X-Tube is Cool
BY EDITOR, JUNE 16, 2003
Sofamor Danek didn't pay us to say that, we just like the look of this new product. 250,000 patients a year decide to undergo a discectomy operation to “deflate the tire” of a herniated disc. Satisfaction rates are routinely 95%+. The new Sofamor Danek METRx-X-Tube is a disc excision system with an integrated light source. It reduces the incision size of this very popular and common procedure by half to less than one inch and leaves the back muscles virtually intact. But, despite the smaller incisions, the system actually expands the surgeon's work area at the section of the spine undergoing surgery.
The system works by using a series of dilating metal tubes to move muscle aside and expand the base at the surgery site from 2.5cm to 4 cm. An integrated light source hangs on the sides of the tubes to project light into the surgical site, making a headlamp unnecessary. With less trauma to the muscles, recovery times should be faster, blood loss less and post-op pain more manageable.
