Olympia Medical Center Pilots New Surgical Technology for Relief of Lower Back Pain

Online, August 30, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Olympia Medical Center (www.olympiamc.com) and Baxano, Inc. ™ (www.baxano.com) announced another successful use of an advancement in surgical technology for central, lateral recess and foraminal lumbar stenosis. This new advancement in surgical technology is known as the iO-Flex™ System, and uses thin, flexible instruments through an open exposure or a minimally invasive tube to provide precision lumbar decompression from the "inside out" ("iO"). Olympia Medical Center is the first hospital in the Los Angeles area to offer the iO-Flex System as part of lumbar decompression surgery.

Over 300,000 people per year in the US have surgery for the symptoms of lumbar stenosis, which include pain, numbness, tingling or weakness in your back and legs caused by bone and other tissue pressing on the spinal nerves.

"I am impressed by the Baxano organization and the patient outcomes achieved thus far with this truly innovative over-the-wire technology that provides a complete decompression while sparing the facet joints," states Carl Lauryssen, M.D. "Up to four nerve roots may be decompressed through a single-point access with this system, which means that I can provide a minimally-invasive surgical approach to decompress multiple levels."

Sam Bakshian, M.D, uses the iO-Flex system as part of decompression surgery to access and relieve compressed spinal nerves which previously could not be addressed without further destabilizing the spine. "Clinical studies1 have shown that preserving the facet joints helps maintain spinal stability," said Dr. Bakshian. "The 'over the wire' approach of Baxano's iO-Flex System allows me give my patients a direct decompression, while preserving the integrity of their facet joints."

Patient Ray was suffering with back and leg pain for more than 10 years. As the patient describes it, "The leg pain I experienced was excruciating to the point that I was nearly bed ridden. This is a tough thing to deal with when you are used to living an active healthy life. It's tough to have a bad back and be disabled when you are an avid skier and cyclist used to riding 200-250 miles a week.

I was repeatedly told that at 50, I had the back of a 70 year old."

Before meeting with Dr. Lauryssen, Ray was told his surgical options were either a spacer, which would not last long and could ultimately lead him to more surgery, or a fusion. Neither of those sounded like a viable option, so he went online to find an alternative and learned about the Baxano system. He asked Dr. Lauryssen if I would be a good candidate.

"I am now two months out from my surgery," says Ray, "and my quality of life has improved tremendously. I feel lucky that Dr. Lauryssen has the surgical experience to bring this new technology to help get me back my quality of life. I am really excited to get back to doing all the things I love and explore new activities."

Simone Scotti, 64, is an iO Flex patient of Dr. Bakshian. She had fairly significant weakness in her right lower extremity for about two weeks and she could barely move her right foot. She had notable narrowing stenosis. She had an MRI and the MRI concurred that there was a narrowing in the same area where her leg was weak. This was the same area that controls the nerves that send signals to the muscles.

Because she has an abnormal slippage of the vertebrae it was critical to do a thorough decompression.

"The problem with traditional decompression procedures is -- when they fail - the surgeon may either take too much bone or they don't take enough bone. If you don't take enough bone, the patient may still have residual nerve symptoms. By taking too much bone a surgeon can destabilize one of the vertebrae and it wobbles. A patient can get a lot of back pain. As a result the surgeon will have to fuse the vertebrae," said Dr. Bakshian. "In some people who have an already slipped vertebrae a surgeon needs to be careful not to shave more of the bone around the nerves than is needed. But the surgeon still has to take enough to take the pressure off."

Dr. Bakshian specializes in the surgical and non-surgical management of disorders of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. This includes degenerative disease, disc herniations, spinal stenosis, spinal deformity, spinal trauma as well as spinal tumors. Dr. Lauryssen has twice been awarded the Young Investigator Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons for his work on cervical disorders and stem cell research. Dr. Bakshian and Dr. Lauryssen perform minimally invasive orthopedic procedures at Olympia Medical Center.