Research

Clinical and Translational Research at the SIF of clinical care of patients in the operating room and clinics using and evaluating the latest innovative technologies available that affect human quality of life is conducted by our researchers on a daily basis. Translational clinical care is also conducted by our researchers in the laboratories in collaboration the clinical team to bring these concepts into daily reality. Our research fellows who conduct this work gathering data and analyzing outcomes are the next generation of future leaders in Spine care.

Multiple different subspecialty areas of interest have been a focus of the SIF research group that include clinical outcomes that also impact the daily life of the patients treated are included below.

Artificial disc replacement technology

Expand

We are the leaders in this technology with the longest experience and being the first program in Los Angeles and the Western United States beginning in 2002 for lumbar artificial discs and in 2004 for cervical artificial disc studies that were FDA approved clinical trials that were the first and continue to present. These unique technologies preserve spinal motion and function and also prevent subsequent additional surgery at adjacent vertebrae in future years. Some of these key studies on Artificial Disc Replacement and other motion preserving technologies are listed below.

A Prospective Study of Lumbar Facet Arthroplasty in the Treatment of Degenerative Spondylolisthesis and Stenosis: Early Cost-effective Assessment from the Total Posterior Spine System (TOPS™) IDE Study
Read More
Two-level cervical disc arthroplasty in patients with Klippel-Feil syndrome: A case report and review of the literature
Read More
Treatment of cervical radiculopathy: A review of the evolution and the economics
Read More
Results of Cervical Arthroplasty Compared with Anterior Discectomy and Fusion: Four-Year Clinical Outcomes in a Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial
Read More
Spinal Artificial Disc Replacement: Cervical Arthroplasty; Part I: History, Design, and Types of Artificial Discs
Read More
Spinal Artificial Disc Replacement: Cervical Arthroplasty; Part II: History, Design, and Types of Artificial Discs
Access strategies for revision or explanation of the Charité lumbar artificial disc replacement
Read More
Spinal artificial disc replacement: lumbar arthroplasty. Part I
Read More
Spinal artificial disc replacement: lumbar arthroplasty. Part II
Response to the editorial and points of view regarding the IDE study of the CHARITE ́ TM artificial disc
The future of spinal arthroplasty: a biomaterial perspective
Read More
Neurological complications of lumbar artificial disc replacement and comparison of clinical results with those related to lumbar arthrodesis in the literature: results of a multicenter, prospective, randomized Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) study of the Charite intervertebral disc
Read More
Sagittal alignment and the Bryan Cervical Artificial Disc
Read More

Stem cell research

Expand

Computer Guided Spinal Surgery (including Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence applications, and Robotic Spinal Surgery)

Expand

Computer Guided Spinal Surgery known as Image Guided Surgery (IGS) utilizes computer guidance that has evolved into daily use in recent years that we have been leaders in developing since the mid-1990s is now widely utilized at leading institutions. The use of Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence applications, and Robotic spinal surgery are all based upon the fundamentals of IGS and we have become consulting leaders with the corporate and scientific leaders in this growing discipline of spinal surgery. Key publications we produced at the SIF are listed below.

Trends and Long-term Health Care Utilization of Computer Assisted Neuronavigation in Spine fusions: An Exact Matched Analysis of National Administrative database
Read More
Augmented Reality in Spinal Surgery: Highlights From Augmented Reality Lectures at the Emerging Technologies Annual Meetings
Read More
Video-assisted thoracoscopic image guided surgery: evolution of 19 years of experience , from endoscopy to fully integrated 3D navigation
Read More
Highlights from the First Annual Spinal Navigation, Emerging Technologies and Systems Integration Meeting
Read More
Resection of spinal column tumors utilizing image-guided navigation: a multicenter analysis
Read More
Minimally invasive spinal surgery with intraoperative image-guided navigation: Clinical Study
Read More
Economics of Image Guidance and Navigation in Spine Surgery
Read More
Introduction: Intraoperative spinal imaging and navigation: past achievements, present challenges and future goals
Read More
Instrumenting the small thoracic pedicle: the role of intraoperative computed-tomography image-guided surgery (CT-IGS)
Read More
Image-Guided Navigation and Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Spine Surgery: The Second Generation
Read More
Clinical and Radiographic outcomes of minimally invasive percutaneous pedicle screw placement with intraoperative CT (O-arm) image guidance navigation
Read More
Accuracy of intraoperative computed-tomography image-guided surgery (CT-IGS) in placing pedicle and pelvic screws for primary versus revision spine surgery
Read More
Robotics and the Spine: A Review of Current and Ongoing Applications
Read More
Image-guided thoracoscopic spinal surgery: a merging of two technologies
Read More
Computer-assisted thoracic pedicle screw placement: an in vitro feasibility study
Read More
Image-guided thoracic pedicle screw placement: a technical study in cadavers and preliminary clinical experience
Read More
Accuracy of image guided placement of C1-2 transarticular screws
Read More
Anterior image guided spinal registration: a comparative accuracy study
Read More
Frame-based Stereotactic Spinal Radiosurgery: Experience from the first 19 patients treated
Read More
Universal calibration of surgical instruments for spinal stereotaxy
Read More
New software applications for interchangeable instrumentation in spinal stereotaxis
Read More