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Rensselaer Professor Collaborates With Surgeon To Fight Spinal Diseases and Disorders
According to Kevin Craig, director of core engineering and professor of mechanical, aeronautical, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer, collaboration between engineers and medical doctors can lead to new opportunities in medicine that may have never otherwise been considered. That was the case when Craig was approached back in the early 1990s by Dr. Allen Carl, professor of surgery at Albany Medical Center and an expert on spinal diseases and disorders. Dr. Carl was looking for an alternative to traditional procedures for managing scoliosis, a lateral curvature of the spine. The traditional forms of treatment are surgery and bracing. According to Craig, there is great danger to the spinal cord during surgical procedures and rarely is full correction achieved during any corrective procedure. Together they examined the deficiencies of current treatments and the material properties of the spine. They concluded that the best approach was to stabilize the spine while allowing for incremental corrections - a gradual pulling and stretching of the spine that, over time, would allow for correction of the vertebrae without injury to the spinal cord. Drastic change in spinal structure over a short period of time could traumatize the spinal cord resulting in paralysis, said Craig. The result was an implantable micro-machine designed to allow for a progressive, incremental correction of the spine, called a shape memory alloy internal linear (SMAIL) actuator. According to Craig, the device is designed to attach to the vertebrae within the body and exerts corrective forces on the vertebrae. However, the device is actuated and controlled externally using heat. Heating and cooling of the shape memory alloy initiates movements of clutches and screws within the micro-machine. Subsequent heating and cooling at various intervals would incrementally rotate the device as necessary, resetting the spine. The device was patented in 1996, but further testing must be completed before the device can be used on patients, said Craig. "We had begun work on our device prior to Christopher Reeve's injury. However, his passion for finding cures for spinal cord injuries and diseases certainly helped bring attention to our efforts and the idea of engineers and surgeons working together," said Craig. |
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th St., Troy, NY 12180. (518) 276-6000 |