In a surgery where a fraction of a millimetre can make the difference between protecting and damaging the spinal cord, neurosurgeons at SGPGIMS have developed a safety device designed to make drilling around the delicate neural tissue safer.
The innovation addresses two critical risks during the procedure—heat generated by the surgical drill and accidental contact of the rotating drill with the spinal cord. The device is designed to reduce heat transmission towards the spinal cord and minimise the possibility of direct contact between the drill and neural tissue, thereby providing an additional safety barrier during the delicate procedure. The new device has been designed to address precisely this vulnerability. The device has received patent certification from the Indian Patent Office, Government of India, and is expected to be incorporated into routine spinal surgical practice.
The Spine Drilling Safety Device, developed and patented by Dr Ved Prakash Maurya, additional professor, Department of Neurosurgery, SGPGIMS, is designed specifically for surgery to remove a bony spur in children with Split Cord Malformation Type-1 (SCM-1), a rare congenital abnormality in which a bony structure divides the spinal cord. Because the structure lies in close proximity to the spinal cord, however, drilling away the spur itself presents a major surgical challenge.
