Anything that can replace human bones must be as hard as bones, so metal materials are often used in orthopedics.
If these things had not appeared in the surgeon's box, at first glance they would have been mistaken for machine parts.
The cylindrical shape looks like a sieve closed together. This thing is called a titanium cage, a type of orthopedic material.
Just looking at the structure, you can tell that it should be a simple device, and it is indeed so. It is the least complex supporting material in the fixed fusion artificial vertebra. Since it has no height adjustment device, it cannot be adjusted during surgery, and its stability depends on the spikes at the head and tail ends. The surgeon can only add titanium plates or nails to it to help fix it.
Medical materials are constantly developing. To address the defect of titanium cages that cannot be adjusted in height, another type of artificial vertebra that can be adjusted in height will definitely be invented, called an adjustable fixed artificial vertebra.
This kind of artificial vertebra, like the one Xie Wanying is holding in her hands, is not complicated in structure. It is a cone consisting of an inner tube and an outer tube, with an adjustment screw. If the surgeon wants to raise it during surgery, he pulls up the inner tube and fixes it. If he wants to lower it, he presses down the inner tube and fixes it. It can be adjusted, but the stability of the inner tube and the outer tube fixed only by screws is not very reliable. Therefore, the surgeon must also add a nail rod system to assist in fixation.
In order to enhance the self-stability of artificial vertebrae, medical scientists have invented the following self-fixing artificial vertebrae. This artificial vertebrae does not need titanium plates and nail rod systems, but relies on screws directly on its front and rear ends to fix to the adjacent vertebrae.
The above three types are all fusion-type artificial vertebrae. They develop step by step and strive to overcome previous defects, but ultimately they will inevitably have relative surgical sequelae due to loss of mobility.
Here we have to mention that when the vertebrae are removed during surgery, the cartilage tissue between the vertebrae, namely the intervertebral disc, must be removed at the same time. Only in this way can the artificial vertebra be fixed between the front and back vertebrae. After the intervertebral disc is removed, it is conceivable that the physiological function of the activity of this part of the spine will be affected. Therefore, since the fusion-type artificial vertebrae are fixed and cannot bend, they cannot replace the intervertebral disc. In this case, the pressure of spinal activity can only be transmitted to the adjacent vertebrae. If the adjustment is not good, it may eventually lead to the degeneration of the intervertebral disc of the adjacent vertebrae. If the patient is an elderly person and the intervertebral disc is already atrophied and the situation will be more serious later.
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Understanding this defect, movable artificial vertebrae were invented. The movable purpose is to replace the function of the intervertebral disc with an artificial vertebra. This vertebra has some intervertebral disc functions and can bend forward, bend backward, and rotate normally. However, these movable artificial vertebrae are not mature and are still in the exploratory stage. The ideal is beautiful, but it is difficult to make them exactly the same as the original organs and tissues of the human body and be as good as the creator. The latest upgraded products are definitely more expensive than the old ones. In order to save money, the most common clinical products are fixed artificial vertebrae plus nail rod systems, relying on the doctor's technical efforts to make up for the shortcomings of the fixed type.
After reading these things, people from other departments were indeed reviewing their orthopedic knowledge. They all looked up at Chang Jiawei as they pondered. Could they put this artificial vertebra in the most suitable position and adjust it to the most suitable height?
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