Chinese back patients get pain relief with Israeli tech

[Sally]

Since millions of people have back pain, this is certainly a great thing.

Chinese back patients get pain relief with Israeli tech

Mazor Robotics brings spine surgery system to the world’s most populous country after approval by health officials

BY DAVID SHAMAH September 9, 2014, 6:17 pm

• 

A back surgeon looks at a 3D model of a patient's spinal column in preparation for surgery using the Mazor Renaissance system (Photo credit: Courtesy)
WRITERS

David Shamah

Chinese patients facing tricky, dangerous back surgery can benefit now from the skills of Mazor Robotics, which develops technology to help surgeons more accurately and securely perform spine surgery. The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has just approved the company’s Renaissance 3D imaging robotic surgery system, clearing the way for Renaissance to be installed in hundreds of hospitals in China.

China is just the latest country where Mazor has made an impact. It was approved by the FDA in the United States over three years ago, and dozens of the systems are installed in North America, Turkey, India, and Southeast Asia. The Caesarea-based company went public in the US about a year ago, and it’s traded on NASDAQ. According to Mazor, its spine surgery-assisting technology has been used in over 4,000 procedures worldwide. The company’s entry into the Chinese market will, Mazor said, significantly increase the number of customers deploying its technology.

Read more:

Chinese back patients get pain relief with Israeli tech The Times of Israel

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd's back hurts him whenever Granny tells him to do sumpin' around the house...

Researchers find key to treating human pain
Dec. 4, 2015 - Researchers used mice to confirm how a rare genetic mutation prevents people from feeling pain.

Using mice genetically altered to lack a nerve channel that enables people and animals to feel pain, researchers developed a two-drug method of treatment they think will help people who have chronic pain. Nerve cells use various channels to communicate with the nervous system, including to signal pain. Previous research showed the sodium channel Nav1.7 is important specifically for signaling pain, and people born with a non-functioning Nav1.7 do not feel pain. Broad-spectrum channel blockers are not good for long-term use because of complete numbness and side effects that develop over long periods of use, and opioids are highly addictive and cause side effects, which has led researchers to search for a way to artificially recreate the rare condition of living pain-free.

Low levels of opioids are produced naturally by the body, which help people with a rare genetic mutation preventing their nervous system from communicating pain to their brains, allowing them not to feel pain. Researchers at University College London think they can recreate this effect pharmaceutically for chronic pain patients.​

The researchers believed people with the mutation have higher than normal levels of natural opioids, which they confirmed in both mice and people, which combines with the lack of a functioning Nav1.7 to prevent pain -- leading to the combination treatment researchers plan to patent and develop. "After a decade of rather disappointing drug trials, we now have confirmation that Nav1.7 really is a key element in human pain," said John Wood, a professor at University College London, in a press release. "The secret ingredient turned out to be good old-fashioned opioid peptides, and we have now filed a patent for combining low dose opioids with Nav1.7 blockers. This should replicate the painlessness experienced by people with rare mutations, and we have already successfully tested this approach in unmodified mice."

First, researchers gave mice without Nav1.7 naloxone, an opioid blocker, and found the rodents could feel pain. Then they did the same thing with a 39-year-old woman who does not have functioning Nav1.7 channels, and she felt pain for the first time in her life. Wood said his team hopes to start human trials in 2017 to test low-level opioids -- lower than they believe would be addictive -- combined with blocking Nav1.7, in the hope that it will successfully solve pain conditions. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Researchers find key to treating human pain

See also:

Artificial implant for knee surgery can ease pain, speed recovery
Dec. 3, 2015 - The artificial meniscus, already in use in Europe and getting good reviews, is undergoing an FDA trial for use in the United States.

Doctors in Boston are among the first in the United States to implant an artificial meniscus in a patient's knee, part of a clinical trial of a device that may help people who have had little to no treatment options. The meniscus, referred to as a shock absorber where the bones in the knee come together, can wear down over time. Often, it is injured early in life while playing sports or other activities, and gets progressively worse over time. Doctors inserted NUsurface meniscus implant in the knee of Brockton, Mass., resident Rob Price at Brigham and Women's Hospital before Thanksgiving. Price had his ACL replaced in his left knee, and his meniscus was removed because of a tear, about 10 years ago after playing basketball.

Many people injure their meniscus, which acts as a shock absorber between the bones in the knee, during sports or other physical activities.​

The procedure to remove his meniscus, a relatively common one, left him with pain for years as the bones in his knee rubbed up against one another. While some meniscus tears can be repaired, many are treated like Price's and removed. Dr. Andreas Gomoll, who performed the surgery, said the NUsurface may change the way knees are surgically repaired because it is simply placed in between the bones in the knee. "It has a pretty complex shape that conforms to the shape of the knee joint," Gomoll told WCVB-TV. "You don't have to cut bone, you don't have to permanently alter the anatomy of the knee joint itself."

Gomoll said the ideal patient to receive an implant is between the ages of 30 and 50, has had surgery on a meniscus previously and is having problems with it again, though not arthritis. And the recovery itself, he said, is faster as well, tacking about two to three months. The NUsurface is currently undergoing a series of clinical trials to find its effectiveness surgically and over the long term as patients recover. The trials are expected to be completed sometime in mid- to late-2018.

Artificial implant for knee surgery can ease pain, speed recovery

 

[Sally]

Since millions of people have back pain, this is certainly a great thing.

Chinese back patients get pain relief with Israeli tech

Mazor Robotics brings spine surgery system to the world’s most populous country after approval by health officials

BY DAVID SHAMAH September 9, 2014, 6:17 pm

• 

A back surgeon looks at a 3D model of a patient's spinal column in preparation for surgery using the Mazor Renaissance system (Photo credit: Courtesy)
WRITERS

David Shamah
Chinese patients facing tricky, dangerous back surgery can benefit now from the skills of Mazor Robotics, which develops technology to help surgeons more accurately and securely perform spine surgery. The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has just approved the company’s Renaissance 3D imaging robotic surgery system, clearing the way for Renaissance to be installed in hundreds of hospitals in China.

China is just the latest country where Mazor has made an impact. It was approved by the FDA in the United States over three years ago, and dozens of the systems are installed in North America, Turkey, India, and Southeast Asia. The Caesarea-based company went public in the US about a year ago, and it’s traded on NASDAQ. According to Mazor, its spine surgery-assisting technology has been used in over 4,000 procedures worldwide. The company’s entry into the Chinese market will, Mazor said, significantly increase the number of customers deploying its technology.

Read more:

Chinese back patients get pain relief with Israeli tech The Times of Israel

Let's add a couple of more things..........

Japan turns to Israeli tech to treat radiation disease
Pluristem’s stem-cell technology may hold cure for victims affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster

Japan turns to Israeli tech to treat radiation disease

Israel tech helps the deaf ‘hear’ and the blind ‘see’
Israeli accelerator program A3i is leading the way in ‘ability’ technology, improving the lives of millions with disabilities

Israel tech helps the deaf ‘hear’ and the blind ‘see’

 

[aris2chat]

Uncle Ferd's back hurts him whenever Granny tells him to do sumpin' around the house...

Researchers find key to treating human pain
Dec. 4, 2015 - Researchers used mice to confirm how a rare genetic mutation prevents people from feeling pain.

Using mice genetically altered to lack a nerve channel that enables people and animals to feel pain, researchers developed a two-drug method of treatment they think will help people who have chronic pain. Nerve cells use various channels to communicate with the nervous system, including to signal pain. Previous research showed the sodium channel Nav1.7 is important specifically for signaling pain, and people born with a non-functioning Nav1.7 do not feel pain. Broad-spectrum channel blockers are not good for long-term use because of complete numbness and side effects that develop over long periods of use, and opioids are highly addictive and cause side effects, which has led researchers to search for a way to artificially recreate the rare condition of living pain-free.

Low levels of opioids are produced naturally by the body, which help people with a rare genetic mutation preventing their nervous system from communicating pain to their brains, allowing them not to feel pain. Researchers at University College London think they can recreate this effect pharmaceutically for chronic pain patients.​

The researchers believed people with the mutation have higher than normal levels of natural opioids, which they confirmed in both mice and people, which combines with the lack of a functioning Nav1.7 to prevent pain -- leading to the combination treatment researchers plan to patent and develop. "After a decade of rather disappointing drug trials, we now have confirmation that Nav1.7 really is a key element in human pain," said John Wood, a professor at University College London, in a press release. "The secret ingredient turned out to be good old-fashioned opioid peptides, and we have now filed a patent for combining low dose opioids with Nav1.7 blockers. This should replicate the painlessness experienced by people with rare mutations, and we have already successfully tested this approach in unmodified mice."

First, researchers gave mice without Nav1.7 naloxone, an opioid blocker, and found the rodents could feel pain. Then they did the same thing with a 39-year-old woman who does not have functioning Nav1.7 channels, and she felt pain for the first time in her life. Wood said his team hopes to start human trials in 2017 to test low-level opioids -- lower than they believe would be addictive -- combined with blocking Nav1.7, in the hope that it will successfully solve pain conditions. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Researchers find key to treating human pain

See also:

Artificial implant for knee surgery can ease pain, speed recovery
Dec. 3, 2015 - The artificial meniscus, already in use in Europe and getting good reviews, is undergoing an FDA trial for use in the United States.

Doctors in Boston are among the first in the United States to implant an artificial meniscus in a patient's knee, part of a clinical trial of a device that may help people who have had little to no treatment options. The meniscus, referred to as a shock absorber where the bones in the knee come together, can wear down over time. Often, it is injured early in life while playing sports or other activities, and gets progressively worse over time. Doctors inserted NUsurface meniscus implant in the knee of Brockton, Mass., resident Rob Price at Brigham and Women's Hospital before Thanksgiving. Price had his ACL replaced in his left knee, and his meniscus was removed because of a tear, about 10 years ago after playing basketball.

Many people injure their meniscus, which acts as a shock absorber between the bones in the knee, during sports or other physical activities.​

The procedure to remove his meniscus, a relatively common one, left him with pain for years as the bones in his knee rubbed up against one another. While some meniscus tears can be repaired, many are treated like Price's and removed. Dr. Andreas Gomoll, who performed the surgery, said the NUsurface may change the way knees are surgically repaired because it is simply placed in between the bones in the knee. "It has a pretty complex shape that conforms to the shape of the knee joint," Gomoll told WCVB-TV. "You don't have to cut bone, you don't have to permanently alter the anatomy of the knee joint itself."

Gomoll said the ideal patient to receive an implant is between the ages of 30 and 50, has had surgery on a meniscus previously and is having problems with it again, though not arthritis. And the recovery itself, he said, is faster as well, tacking about two to three months. The NUsurface is currently undergoing a series of clinical trials to find its effectiveness surgically and over the long term as patients recover. The trials are expected to be completed sometime in mid- to late-2018.

Artificial implant for knee surgery can ease pain, speed recovery

>> rare genetic mutation prevents people from feeling pain.<<

I'll take two