Let me tell you, folks, we’ve got a situation here that’s absolutely devastating. We’re talking about intra-operative spinal cord injury (ISCI) during spinal surgery. It’s a big deal, a huge problem. And guess what? There’s no uniform definition for it. Can you believe it? That means the numbers, the risks, they’re all over the place. But, we’re tackling this head-on with a mixed-methods approach. We’re doing the work, the real work, to get to the bottom of this.

We did a scoping review, top-notch, only the best, to figure out what ISCI really means and how often it’s happening. The Guidelines Development Group (GDG), they’re the best people, really smart, they reviewed, revised, and voted on a definition. We’re talking precision, folks. And then, we did a systematic review, because we leave no stone unturned, to nail down the risk factors for ISCI. We’re talking about older age, being a male, having cardiovascular disease, and a bunch of other things that make you more at risk. But, there’s good news – better pre-operative neurological status and using intra-operative neuromonitoring (IONM), they can actually lower your risk. We’ve got it all laid out, clear as day.

And let me tell you, we’ve defined ISCI in a way that’s crystal clear. It’s about new or worsening neurological deficits during or right after spine surgery, caught by the sharpest tools we’ve got – neurophysiologic monitoring or an intraoperative wake-up test. This is big, folks. We’ve also listed out all the risk factors, things like rigid thoracic curve, revision congenital deformity, you name it. This is the guide, the roadmap, for clinicians to make the best decisions.

So, we’re making spinal surgery safer, better, because we’re identifying the risks, and we’re defining the problem like it’s never been defined before. This is how you make a difference, folks. This is how you change the game.