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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Simon Smith, Goksu KandemirORCiD, Andrew Bowey, Professor Tom Joyce
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
© 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.Study Design. Laboratory analysis of explanted MAGnetic Expansion Control (MAGEC) rods. Objective. Identify the in vivo lengthening of MAGEC rods Summary of Background Data. Little data is available regarding the lengthening achieved by MAGEC rods. Methods. Cases were identified from the largest series of independently analyzed explanted MAGEC rods. The in vivo growth of rods was determined by the distance between the first 'growth mark' and the actuator. The instrumented spinal lengthening was calculated for each construct. Constructs were considered functional if all rods could lengthen with external remote controller activation and no rods were 'telescoping'. Results. Fifty-five MAGEC constructs (99 rods) from 53 patients treated at 10 centers were included. The mean age at insertion was 8.5 years with rods implanted a mean of 35 months. Sixty rods were suitable for analysis with mean lengthening 21.7mm, 8.9mm/year. Of these 60 rods 3 were maximally distracted. Mean instrumented spinal lengthening for 38 suitable cases was 22.1mm, 8.4mm/year. This was positively correlated with the duration of implantation (r=0.34, p=0.04) but negatively with patient age at insertion (r=-0.35, p=0.03). The rate of instrumented spinal lengthening was negatively correlated with duration of implantation (r=-0.47, p=0.004). Of 55 constructs 34 were non-functional at time of removal with 9 functional and 12 indeterminate. Functional constructs had been implanted significantly less time (20.0 vs. 39.7 months, p<0.001) and lengthened less than those non-functional (12.3mm vs. 23.3mm, p=0.04). Conclusions. This multicenter explant study represents the largest cohort managed with MAGEC rods reported. Rods are very rarely removed having fully lengthened with mean instrumented spinal growth of 22mm over the implant's life. This may be explained by a high rate of lengthening mechanism failure in received rods after around 3 years in vivo. Our findings question the effectiveness of the MAGEC system and mandate urgent comparative clinical studies.Level of Evidence: 4.
Author(s): Rushton PRP, Smith SL, Kandemir G, Forbes L, Fender D, Bowey AJ, Gibson MJ, Joyce TJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Spine
Year: 2020
Volume: 45
Issue: 3
Pages: 170-176
Print publication date: 01/02/2020
Online publication date: 01/02/2020
Acceptance date: 22/07/2019
Date deposited: 22/01/2021
ISSN (print): 0362-2436
ISSN (electronic): 1528-1159
Publisher: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
URL: https://doi.org/10.1097/BRS.0000000000003215
DOI: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000003215
PubMed id: 31513114
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