A study published in The Spine Journal examines the radiation exposure to surgeons during minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion using novel spinal locators.
The study included 20 patients who underwent MIS TLIF surgery with G-arm fluoroscopy over a six month period in 2013. There were 10 patients who underwent the standard MIS TLIF using the novel spinal locators and 10 patients who underwent the conventional procedure without spinal locators.
The researchers found:
1. Average operative time for the patients who underwent the procedure with the novel spinal locators was 171.20±10.28 minutes; the conventional group patients had an average surgical time of 198.80±11.99 minutes.
2. The fluoroscopy time for patients in the novel locator group was 49.60±7.32 seconds. For the conventional group, fluoroscopy time was 68.40±7.62 seconds, which meant there was a 27.9 percent reduction.
3. The researchers didn’t find any correlation between the operative time and radiation exposure time for either group.
4. The radiation reduction was:
● Arm: 35.28 percent
● Finger: 17.95 percent
● Whole body: 45.23 percent
● Eye (protected): 59.42 percent
● Eye (unprotected): 59.7 percent
5. Among the glands, radiation reduction was:
● Thyroid gland (protected): 53.62 percent
● Thyroid gland (unprotected): 52.44 percent
● Gonad gland (protected): 44 percent
● Gonad gland (unprotected): 36.42 percent
"The study indicated that radiation exposure to the surgeon would be effectively reduced in MIS TLIF using our surface locator and intradermal locator, and it could be another practical choice for radiation-minimizing strategy," concluded the study authors.