Renowned Orange County Doctor Using the First Dissolvable Spinal Implant

Dr. Nitin Bhatia is amongst a small group of physicians using a dissolvable spinal implant to improve their patient's outcomes following surgery. Date Released: 05/02/2007 Orange, CA, April 30, 2007 – Dr. Nitin Bhatia, Director of the Spine Center and Combined Spine Program at the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center, is using a new product for spinal surgery called the MYSTIQUE™ Resorbable Graft Containment Plating System. The plate uses a high-tech biologic material that reabsorbs, or dissolves, over time, offering a feature not found in traditional metal implants. The MYSTIQUE™ Plate is the first implant of its kind.

When surgery is needed to alleviate nerve or spinal cord compression, a surgeon may perform a procedure called an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. In this procedure the surgeon makes a small incision in the front of the neck to reach the cervical spine. The disc is removed and the space is filled with bone graft. The MYSTIQUE™ Plate is also used for stabilizing the weak bony tissue around the fusion, preventing bone graft dislodgement and facilitating healing. The new plate is flexible and made of material that dissolves in the body within 18 to 36 months after implantation.

“By using an absorbable plate, we can reduce the number of reoperations necessary for problems such as adjacent segment disease, swallowing problems, or other plate related problems. Also, if any future surgery is made much easier because there will be no plate to have to remove at that time.”

Nearly 200,000 cervical spinal fusions are performed each year to treat degenerative disc disease. Degenerative disc disease, which affects approximately half of the population age 40 and older, can cause a variety of symptoms, including back or neck pain, nerve root pathology and spinal cord compression. Spinal fusion, a surgery commonly used to treat degenerative disc disease after conservative treatments have failed, stabilizes the vertebrae to help relieve the pain caused by a degenerated disc.

The plate’s transparent nature allows doctors to visualize the spine during surgery and can improve the reading of postoperative x-rays. The plate can also be contoured to better match the patient’s unique anatomy before insertion.

The MYSTIQUE™ Plate is made of HYDROSORB® PLDLA co-polymer. This co-polymer consists of 70 percent Poly (L-lactide) and 30 percent Poly (D,L-lactide). More than 10 years of clinical experience and research have shown that implants manufactured from PLDLA materials provide clinicians with a higher level of surgical versatility.

The MYSTIQUE™ Resorbable Graft Containment Plate received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance in July 2004, for non-load bearing indications using additional rigid fixation.

According to one patient who underwent the surgery with Dr. Bhatia, “It was amazing. My pain was gone as soon as I woke up. And knowing that I won’t be carrying around a metal implant my whole life gives me one less thing to worry about.”

Patients can discuss their options with Dr. Bhatia to determine the extent of their spinal problems and whether surgery is a viable option for their treatment. Dr. Bhatia can discuss the advantages and disadvantages during an appointment. Please call 714-456-7012 or visit www.ucispine.com for more information.
 

Dr. Bhatia, a Board Certified and Fellowship Trained spinal surgeon, serves as Director of the Spine Center and Chief of the Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery service at the University of California Irvine.

For all of our patients, a multi-disciplinary non-surgical approach is used. This approach allows the majority of our patients to improve without surgical intervention. When surgery is necessary, Dr. Bhatia's extensive training in state of the art techniques including minimally invasive surgery, endoscopic discectomy, percutaneous fusions, X-Stop lumbar stenosis treatment, XLIF, Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP), and kyphoplasty help to cure his patients' problems with minimal recovery time and less discomfort than other methods.

Dr. Bhatia has been featured as a treating surgeon in the television show "Guardian Angels, MD" seen nationwide on The Learning Channel (TLC) as well as programs on PBS. He has expertise in all areas of spinal pathology including spinal stenosis, disc herniations, spine trauma, scoliosis, complex cervical and lumbar reconstruction, and failed back syndrome. Dr. Bhatia has completed multiple spine surgery fellowships and has trained in both orthopaedic and neurosurgical techniques.

Dr. Bhatia graduated with honors from Stanford University, after which he attended Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During medical school, Dr. Bhatia won numerous research awards and was the valedictorian of his graduating class. Following his Orthopaedic surgery residency at UCLA, Dr. Bhatia completed a spine surgery fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, after which he completed a second spine surgery fellowship at Miami Children’s Hospital. Dr. Bhatia is active in multiple research projects including federally funded spinal cord injury research and has been nominated for the prestigous Russell Hibbs research award by the Scoliosis Research Society. Dr. Bhatia has been inducted into the most prestigous international spinal societies including the North American Spine Society and the Cervical Spine Research Society.

The UC Irvine Spine Center provides care for Orange County and the surrounging communities including Irvine, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Nigel, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Fullerton, Westminster, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Anaheim, Brea, Mission Viejo, Temecula, Fallbrook, Hemet, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Patients from outside these communities are welcome at the UCI Spine Center as well. International patients are encouraged to contact us for assistance and coordination of medical care. Dr. Bhatia and his staff a fluent in multiple languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, and Romanian. Se habla espanol.

For more information: Phone number (714) 456-7012
For further patient education information, please see our website at www.ucispine.com or http://www.spineuniverse.com/mdpage.php?doctorID=2688