lot bigger, if necessary. With older models, you could magnify an
image to maybe twice its actual size. Now, with some of the new C-
arm technologies, you can magnify images up to 10 times. That means
you can actually see extremely small and subtle findings that you
never would have been able to see before.
That's huge. As spine surgeons, if we're dealing with a fracture, and
there are bone fragments that we need to be able to manipulate, we
used to have to depend on pre-operative images because we could
never see them intraoperatively. That meant you had to assume (and
hope) you moved them the way you wanted them to move. If you did-
n't, you'd find out after surgery, which meant your patient was now
facing a second operation.
The new C-arms let you see things in real time that you can't see
with the naked eye, so if things don't move the way they're supposed
to, you can take the needed corrective action right then and there, and
prevent the need for a second procedure.
Smaller footprint, greater efficiency
But bigger pictures don't mean bigger machines. Because the imaging
systems are digital, the machines are significantly smaller than they
used to be. That smaller footprint helps ease the cramped space in the
typical OR. It also means the machines are much easier to move in
and out of the room and around the patient than ever before.
The mobility is one more aspect of an improved level of efficiency
that lets you move patients through surgical procedures faster, but with
the same degree of safety. You realize a benefit by being able to do
more procedures in a given period of time.
The technology can also open up venues that let you expand the
types of services you can provide. When I was training, in the 1990s,
patients who'd had surgical spine fusions would be in the hospital
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