Becker's Spine Review

33 DEVICES & IMPLANTS Smith+Nephew acquires orthopedics business for $240M By Alan Condon S mith+Nephew completed the acquisition of Integra LifeSciences' extremity orthopedics business for $240 million. Integra's sales channel, shoulder replacement and upper and lower extremities portfolio strengthen Smith+Nephew's orthopedics line. The acquisition includes a shoulder replacement system the company expects to launch in 2022. "We are excited to secure this established global business in the rapidly growing extremities segment," Skip Kiil, Smith+Nephew's president of global orthopedics, said in a Jan. 4 news release. "Its portfolio, specialised sales channel and product pipeline all strengthen our business." After closing, Integra's Orthopedics and Tissue Technologies segment has rebranded as the Tissue Technologies segment. "With this divestiture, we will now be in an even stronger position to capitalize on our core products and technologies in neurosurgery and regenerative medicine," said Peter Arduini, president and CEO of Integra. In December, Integra entered into a definitive agreement to acquire regenerative medicine company ACell for up to $400 million. n Spinal technologies that will rise to prominence in 2021: 5 surgeons weigh in By Alan Condon F rom the expansion of robotic spine surgery to disc replace- ment and augmented reality, five surgeons discuss the technol- ogies and procedures they expect to play a bigger role in 2021. Note: e following responses were lightly edited for style and clarity. Question: What spinal technologies do you see becom- ing more prominent in 2021? Jeremy Smith, MD. Hoag Orthopedic Institute (Irvine, Calif.): Innovation in spine surgery continues to revolutionize the field. Techniques used in the future will make our current ones look ar- chaic. e most fascinating and applicable technology that will be welcomed in 2021 will center around minimally invasive techniques. With COVID-19 limiting hospital beds and resources, the drive to- ward outpatient surgery will accelerate. Techniques involving sin- gle-position surgery (lateral or prone) will continue to improve and allow 360-degree fusions with minimal blood loss and perioperative morbidity. Endoscopic spine surgery continues to grow, and as sur- geons continue to refine their skills, indications will become broader. Industry competition has allowed for multiple navigation and robot- ic technologies that continue to maximize accuracy and minimize invasiveness. Vladimir Sinkov, MD. Sinkov Spine Center (Las Vegas): Mini- mally invasive surgery and technologies that enable MIS procedures will continue gaining popularity. ere is more scientific evidence on benefits of MIS surgery and patients demand it. ese technol- ogies also make it easier to do more advanced spine surgery, such as lumbar fusions, at an ASC. at will drive better outcomes, cost savings and avoid the need to take elective spine surgery patients to the already overwhelmed acute care hospitals. Robotic-assisted spine surgery will continue gaining popularity as newer capabilities (be- yond placing pedicles screws) become more available and accessible. Todd Lanman, MD. Lanman Spinal Neurosurgery (Beverly Hills, Calif.): I think arthroplasty is going to continue to grow, with newer technology discs that are evolving and will be used more oen. Discs with not just mobile cores, but potentially compressible cores that mimic normal physiologic motions of discs, will be more in use next year. Furthermore, expanded indications in arthroplasty will contin- ue to broaden. is means not only placing artificial discs in people with significant degenerative discs or even facet joint disease in the cervical spine, but also patients who have severe motion restriction from prior multilevel fusions who will now be able to have those re- versed. We are doing reversals of such fusions in order to restore motion in certain patients. We call this restorative motion surgery, used for patients who have had multilevel spinal fusions. So far, it has been very successful with no significant complications. We are continuing to study this and we'll be publishing more on it in the near future. Brian Gantwerker, MD. Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: Ex- pandable and augmented reality technologies will become more prominent in the coming year. Implantation through an endoscop- ic-type approach will be more feasible and allow for patients to have much less invasive surgery. Some of my colleagues are now doing awake fusion surgery, which I think is fascinating. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of buy-in from anesthesia. Adoption in some places, like my own, will likely be slow. Lastly, I see technologies involving virtu- al learning and teaching become more prevalent. As the COVID-19 pandemic hopefully starts to recede, the way people learn is going to be forever changed. e companies that can do that effectively will be front and center in 2021 and beyond. John Burleson, MD. Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics (Nashville, Tenn.): I believe robotics will continue to increase next year. We will also start to see the first wave of adoption of augmented reality in the clinic and the operating room. n

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