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Dr. Kim shares how utilizing the O-arm® technology during spine surgery helps to reduce the need for revisional surgeries in the future.
Dr. Kim:
One of the other advantages of the O-arm® is that during surgery if we discover that the implant isn’t in the perfect position we would find out about that in real time and have the opportunity to fix that during the same operation.
Without O-arm® three-dimensional technology we may have to wait until after the surgery when the patients recover from surgery to send them down to a CT scan or an MRI to find out if the implant is in the perfect position or not.
If that happens, then we’d have to then go back to the operating room and that’s a big disadvantage. If there is a problem or something isn’t exactly perfect we want to know about that during surgery so that we can make it perfect right then and there.
This type of technology increases my ability to know exactly where I am and like anything that we do, knowing where we are greatly improves our confidence and our ability to do things safely and the O-arm® three-dimensional technology allows me to know exactly where I am in three dimensions, whereas typically without this type of technology we have to extrapolate from the anatomy from two-dimensional c-arm imaging, which is the traditional x-ray imaging that we would otherwise rely on and by having images that we can use to know exactly where we are in three-dimensional space it allows me to do the surgeries in a much more safe fashion. I can do them more quickly and I can do them through smaller incisions.
About Dr. Choll Kim, M.D.:
Dr. Choll Kim graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School and completed his fellowship training in complex spine surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He is board certified by American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Dr. Kim is a nationally known expert in the modern field of computer-assisted minimally invasive spine surgery. He has trained specialists throughout the country on the safe and effective application of state-of-the-art techniques using image guidance and navigation technologies.
Add a Comment4 Comments
How long should a radiologic technologist be trained on this machine? Should it be a CT tech using the O-ARM due to the images being sectional?
September 30, 2010 - 5:22pmThis Comment
Typically a radiology tech can be trained to use just about any radiological imaging device. Is there a specific question you have?
October 1, 2010 - 6:34amThis Comment
I wanted to know what the recommended training time frame was? One day, one week, one month. Normally you're given a least a month of training in any new modality, before your thought to be competent.
October 1, 2010 - 5:17pmThis Comment
Length of training on a piece of equipment is typically guided by the policy of the facility.
October 1, 2010 - 5:31pmThis Comment