For the First Time in Israel: Successful Bone Fixation Surgery Using Carbon-Fiber Rods Performed at Hillel Yaffe

On July 29, 2010, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center was the site of the first surgery of its kind performed in Israel to fix a fracture using a carbon-fiber rod. "The minimally invasive surgery is a well-known," said Dr. Gill Laufer, Deputy Director of Orthopedics B Department and the shoulder surgery specialist who performed the surgery. "At the same time, the surgery is largely performed using a titanium alloy or another stainless steel pin. Although the carbon-fiber rod has been used in medicine for many years, its use was limited to minor fixations between the spinal vertebrae. To date, due to the difficulty in shaping the material into unique contours, it has not been used on long bones, or for other bones fixations as we performed in the said surgery. From this perspective, the success of the surgery at Hillel Yaffe is an indication that this material can be used in the near future in more complicated fixations as well, such as in the legs and other areas," he emphasized.

It should be noted that this unique patented surgery has been performed around the world only over the past year, following its approval by European health authorities and by the American FDA. Thirty surgeries have been carried out with this method worldwide to date. At Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, this surgery was performed within the confines of a Ministry of Health-approved study. Hillel Yaffe, as previously noted, is the first hospital in Israel to have successfully performed this surgery.

The use of carbon-fiber rods has many advantages, explained Dr. Laufer. "A carbon-fiber rod is more flexible than metal pins and more similar in flexibility to bone. The material enables MRI and CT scans to be carried out optimally, a necessity particularly when dealing with patients suffering from tumors at the surgical site. With regular pins, an MRI or CT cannot be carried out at all since the various metals interfere. With this method, we can also better determine whether or not the fixation succeeded, something that is more difficult to identify in regular fixations. Furthermore, unlike other fixations, a carbon-fiber rod is transparent to radiation, thereby enabling a reduction in the amount of radiation required for patients undergoing radiation after surgery."

The surgery was, as previously mentioned, minimally invasive, i.e. involving a small incision through which the rod was inserted. The patient who underwent the surgery at Hilllel Yaffe, a woman in her late 50s, was released the next day and is now scheduled to continue radiation therapy and chemotherapy required to treat her disease.

Dr. Laufer concluded by saying that the surgery is essentially an 'opening shot' since its success may definitely pave the way for similar surgeries to be performed in other areas of the body, in limbs that until now have only undergone generally accepted standard fixations.