The ELEVATE™ Spinal System consists of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) with tantalum markers and titanium expandable cages of various length and heights, which can be surgically implanted between two lumbar or lumbarsacral vertebral bodies to give support and correction during lumbar intervertebral body fusion. The hollow geometry of the implants allows them to be packed with autogenous bone graft. This system also includes stainless steel and silicone instruments used to facilitate the implantation of the subject cages. The ELEVATE™ Spinal System will be available in similar sizes.
About Expandable Cages
Expandable interbody cages allow surgeons to go through a small corridor and change the geometry of the cage to correspond to what the patient’s spine requires. These implants may help protect a patient’s nerve roots and other structures in the area near the cage or along the corridor through which they are implanted. Sometimes can be implanted with a minimally invasive surgical procedure.
About Medtronic
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, is theworld’s largest medical technology company and is a Fortune 500 company.Medtronic was founded in 1949 in a garage in northeast Minneapolis by Earl Bakken and his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie as a medical equipment repair shop. They originally wanted to sell basketball pumps due to a shortage in the Midwest in the 20th century. Bakken began as a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota before he gave up his studies to focus on Medtronic.Through their repair business, Bakken came to know C. Walton Lillehei, a pioneer in the field of heart surgery then at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Lillehei was frustrated with the pacemakers of the day, which were quite large, applied electrical current externally (requiring higher voltages), and had to be plugged in to a wall outlet to operate. The deficiencies of such pacemakers were made painfully obvious following a power outage over Halloween in 1957 which affected large sections of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.As a direct result of this blackout, a pediatric patient of Dr. Lillehei who was pacemaker-dependent died. The next day, Lillehei spoke with Bakken about developing some form of battery-powered pacemaker. Stemming from this need, Bakken modified a design for a transistorized metronome to create the first battery-powered external artificial pacemaker.
The company expanded through the 1950s, mostly selling equipment built by other companies, but also developing some custom devices. Bakken built a small transistorized pacemaker that could be strapped to the body and powered by batteries. Work into this new field continued, producing an implantable pacemaker in 1960. Medtronic’s main competitors in the cardiac rhythm field includeStryker Corporation, Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical.
Spinal and Biologics is Medtronic’s second largest business, and Medtronic is the world leader in spinal and musculoskeletal therapies. In 2007, Medtronic purchased Kyphon, a manufacturer and seller of spinal implants necessary for procedures like kyphoplasty.
In May, 2008, Medtronic Spine agreed to pay the U.S. government $75 million to settle a qui tam (whistleblower) lawsuit alleging that Medtronic committed Medicare fraud. The company was charged with illegally convincing healthcare providers to offer kryphoplasty, a spinal fracture repair surgery, as an inpatient rather than outpatient procedure, thereby making thousands more in profits per surgery. http://www.medtronic.com