Kyphoplasty Evolution: Steering Toward Targeted Therapy

[Dr. Jacob Fleming]: Now, to get a little bit into detail, you've had some pretty brave articles including some of your pelvic anatomy and doing cryoablation. Some of the questions that have come up, we've had vertebral augmentation discussions and bone tumor ablation discussions, and some of that comes back into specific devices and techniques. Do you have any comments just in general about being less invasive or being more targeted?

[Dr. David Prologo]:
I do. I do have comments about that. If you don't mind, I'll start even farther out, sort of at 35,000 feet, because at the end of the day, all of these topics, as specific as that question may be, are tied to larger initiatives that we care about, like practice building, for example. If we're talking about kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty, and we're going to drill down on the evolution of the techniques, I think it's important first to point out that the kyphoplasty-vertebroplasty service line or business line is a good example of how we as hospital-based interventional radiologists can be first in line to take care of these patients and to get these cases and to do these rewarding procedures and to help patients.

What I mean by that is there are procedures that other specialties can do. We all know that. We face that all the time. Being in the hospital allows us to potentially be first. If we can convince potential referrers in the emergency department or on the floor to call us when you see a fracture, or even our own diagnostic colleagues to call us when a you see a vertebral body fracture, we have the ability to get to that case and get it done and get the patient out of the hospital and affect the impact of length of stay, thereby helping the patient and helping the system just by being present and being responsive and having a system.

Kyphoplasty is a good example of how we can build our own practices and lay down foundations and build networks and take care of patients. I like kyphoplasty for that reason. What does that mean in plain language? In plain language, it means if you're young and you're coming out and you're at a new job, if you go to the ER, for example, and you say, "I'm here and I will take this patient off your hands, just call me and that's all you have to do."