Could an Innovative Plating System Impact First Ray Surgery?

Sponsored by In2Bones. 

Bradley Abicht, DPM:

My name is Brad Abicht. I'm based out of Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I've been in practice for a little over a decade now.

So this particular product, the PCR CoLink Plating System, came out in November of last year. So I've been using it essentially since that timeframe. And most of the time I've been using it in situations for either osteotomies or arthrodesis. I'd say majority of the time it's been for arthrodesis. So this particular plating system, it's a carbon fiber reinforced peak. They have a first MTP and a straight utility version of the plate and they'll be developing other plates for other joints. But right now that's what they have available. What makes it unique is its complete invisibility or radiolucency on x-ray. They do infuse a little bit of barium sulfate to be able to see the outline of the plate, but the plate is otherwise completely see through, which makes it very convenient for the surgeon to be able to monitor their osteotomy or their arthrodesis site and you can show your patients that and give them some confidence on their bone healing. There's really not another plating system on the market that gives you this type of visibility so that's the main reason why it's so unique.

So last week we actually had a 55-year-old female who had a failed hemi implant in her great toe joint. So we explanted the hemi implant and converted her to a fusion of her great toe joint using iliac bone graft. And so the bone graft was inset within the great toe joint and we used one oblique compression screw followed by dorsal plate utilizing the PCR CoLink Plating System. And this allowed us to have really good visibility of that iliac crest bone graft, which is going to be very helpful in this patient's post-op recovery as we monitor that bone graft and see how it incorporates within the arthrodesis.

The other thing I'd say about this particular material, it's 2.5 times greater fatigue strength than compared to a titanium plate. That's another benefit that it has. It also reduces the risk of cold welding due to the material, so you don't get the same kind of metal on metal bonding that you might with traditional plates. So if that ever has to be removed, it's going to be a little easier to take out.  I think it's kind of unique and look forward to see what else comes out with this type of material.