Measurement of nucleous materials removed during discectomy

Abstract

Abstract A method for determining the volume of the cavity (42) left in an intervertebral disc (40) after surgical removal of the nuclear material therefrom which consists of inserting a deflated flexible expandable container (31), of known volume, thereinto: filling said container (31) with a liquid (L), from a calibrated source (10) of said liquid (L), and causing the container (31) to expand until it completely fills the cavity (42); determining the volume of liquid (L) required to cause the container (31) to completely fill the cavity (42) and calculating the volume of the cavity (42) which is equal to the sum of the volume of liquid (L) required to fill the deflated flexible expandable container (31) and the volume of deflated container (31) itself. A method for determining the shape of the cavity (42) which comprises adding a contrast composition to the liquid (L) in the above method and placing the disc (40) in an imaging apparatus. An apparatus for determining the volume of the cavity (42) left in an intervertebral disc (40) after surgical removal of the nuclear material therefrom which comprises a deflated flexible expandable container (31), a calibrated source (10) of liquid (L) to expand the container (31) and connector means (33) to provide fluid connection between the container (31) and liquid source (10). An apparatus for determining the shape of the disc (40) wherein the above apparatus further comprises a contrast composition added to the liquid (L) and an imaging apparatus.

Inventors

• 👤 Qi-Bin Bao

Bibliographic Details