Imbibe Marrow Aspiration and Delivery - Technical Specifications
Bullet-tip design
Bullet-tip BMA needle is designed to navigate within cortical bone boundaries. The rounded, bullet-tip design tends to deflect back into cancellous bone marrow spaces.
Traditional needles
Sharp-tip needle may perforate cortical bone boundaries making BMA harvest impossible and increasing the risk of soft tissue damage.
Bullet-tip
Trocar
Color coded stylets to quickly and easily identify sharp vs. bullet-tip design
Green stylet:
bullet-tip stylet for navigation within the cancellous bone marrow spaces
Black stylet:
sharp-tip stylet for penetrating cortical bone
Designed for pedicle aspiration Pedicle aspiration 8 gauge (4.2mm diameter) bullet-tip needle was designed to easily aspirate marrow from the pedicle following the use of a standard "gearshift" prior to
placing pedicle screws.
Fenestrations
Oval-shaped ports (6) located within 20mm of needle tip
Why is ICBG the Gold Standard?
Iliac Crest Bone Graft (ICBG) has a Calcium Phosphate (CaP) surface with an open, inter-connected structure that serves as a scaffold.
ICBG provides bone marrow rich with mesenchymal stem cells and hematopoetic stem cells that facilitate bone regeneration and neo-vascularization.
In addition, ICBG provides signals that help drive bone formation.
ACDF - Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
ALIF - Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion
ASIS - Anterior Superior Iliac Spine
PSIS - Posterior Superior Iliac Spine
There are over 175 references supporting the use of bone marrow for grafting.
Less / No Morbidity
BMA is a safe alternative to iliac crest harvest without associated complications or morbidity. 900(+) patients with bone marrow aspiration (16-200mL) showed no infection, no hematoma, no chronic pain, and only 2 bruises.
Percutaneous BMA injection stimulates healing in tibial non-unions
Percutaneous bone marrow injection united 8 of 10 tibial non-unions with cast immobilization and 10 of 10 non-unions with intramedullary nails.
"Bone marrow injection was as effective as past open autologous grafting but with considerably fewer disadvantages."
BMA enhances fusion over ICBG alone
A pre-clinical evaluation (posterolateral fusion study) showed 61% fusion in ICBG + BMA versus 25% fusion in ICBG + blood at 12 weeks.
BMA enhances graft incorporation
"The addition of autologous marrow is a cheap and highly effective way of achieving graft incorporation."
90% incorporation of graft with BMA was achieved during impaction grafting versus 40% for controls (historical).
"Iliac marrow is useful as a bone grafting material to enhance the biological formation in porous coated implants."
There was a statistically significant decrease in radioluscent lines on x-rays of knees grafted with marrow versus those without.