Westlake grad creates spinal surgery device
Westlake High School alumnus Sam Morton said shadowing an orthopedic surgeon back in his high school days stirred his fascination with the applications of mechanical engineering in the medical field. At Duke University, Morton applied that interest to spinal surgeries, working with two other student team members to create what they hope will be a better solution in spinal surgery.
A spinal cage is a small metal tool that can make a world of difference for patients suffering from spinal degeneration or injury. The small piece, usually made from titanium and packed with bone graft, is inserted between the vertebrae. If the procedure is successful, then bone will begin to form around the inserted metal part.
However, sometimes the integration of the spinal cage isn’t successful, Morton said, and a rejection of the spinal cage means pain and another attempt at insertion. Morton and his two student teammates at Duke used a metal 3-D printer to create a design of a different kind of spinal cage, which they hope would be more successful than current models and potentially more customizable.
“If the device placed between two bones is too stiff, the bone doesn’t actually regrow between them,” Morton said. “Being able to fine-tune the stiffness without sacrificing strength of the device is huge ... if the bone doesn’t like the stiffness, you’ve just had a spacer inserted, and that leads to a failed fusion, which is a really terrible outcome.”
Morton and his team were able to use a 3-D printer, which creates an object by laying the metal in a fine powder and then melting it layer by layer, Morton said. The 3-D printer allows the team to create a titanium spinal cage with a “lattice” design, full of many small openings, which gives room for bone regrowth and reduces the stiffness of the cage while maintaining its titanium strength.
Morton recently graduated from Duke and passed his research along to other student researchers. He’ll work in Boston for a consulting firm, which will allow him to continue using his engineering background. Morton said he’s hopeful Duke University students can take the research he and his team started and eventually introduce an improved spinal cage into the medical market.
“We had promising results that showed we were able to achieve a reduced stiffness without reducing strength, but it needs a lot more iteration,” Morton said. “They’ll keep fine-tuning their understanding of it ... but for FDA clearance there’s a large amount of trials we need to go through so it can be permitted for use.”