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Coorstek- Spine Discectomy, Rhett Prestwich, Logan Bolingbroke, Ryan Thomsen, Aaron Blanchard, Kayla Park
Coorstek- Spine Discectomy, Rhett Prestwich, Logan Bolingbroke, Ryan Thomsen, Aaron Blanchard, Kayla Park
Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects
The objective is to design improved instrumentation for performing a spine discectomy. In particular, the instrument should remove the nucleus pulposus without damaging the annulus in order to prepare the spine disc for the insertion of an artificial spacer. As more nucleus pulposus is removed from the disc, the spine will fuse more quickly and completely after the artificial spacer is inserted. The current process involves removing the nucleus pulposus piece by piece with pituitary rongeurs. This process is slow and often incomplete.