New 3D Imaging for Advanced Therapeutics: Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute Brings the First Ciartic Move Mobile Robotic 3D Image-Guidance System to Utah
OREM, Utah, March 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute has implemented the new Ciartic Move 3D imaging system, the most advanced imaging system of its kind that provides ultra-high-resolution 3D imaging with robotically guided movements, overcoming many of the limits of 2D image slices and using self-navigating capabilities to reduce the need for manual operation while also improving workflow during orthopedic procedures. The Siemens 3D Ciartic Move is a low-profile mobile imaging device that enables 3D navigation with robotic holonomic mechanisms to allow floating-like movements around a surgical field. "This technology really moves us into the future for minimally-invasive image-guided procedures," said Dr. Richard J. McMurtrey MD, MSc. "It is the most advanced robotic 3D C-arm cone beam scanner that exists for interventional procedures to see targets and approaches in the highest resolution, and we are grateful to be the first in Utah to implement a revolutionary device of this kind."
Atlanto-Axial C1-2 & Atlanto-Occipital C0-1 Spine Injections with 3D Guidance
Pars Fracture Defect Patching with 3D Guidance
SacroIliac SI Joint Injections with 3D Guidance
The Ciartic Mobile 3D imaging system introduces a new era of mobile imaging and advances a wide array of intricate and complex minimally-invasive procedures and interventions in spine, orthopedics, and trauma by bringing together the most advanced technologies from 3D computed tomography (CT) with 3D navigation and needle guidance, metal artefact reduction and hardware detection, high-resolution fluoroscopy and magnification, digital subtraction angiography (DSA), low-dose radiation settings, and self-driving robotic guidance with automated positioning all at the touch of a button. "As both a doctor and an engineer, it is rewarding to lead the way in combining the best of these fields to provide the most advanced and most minimally-invasive care possible," said Dr. McMurtrey.
While Alpine Spine & Orthopedics has been gaining recognition for their innovative approaches to tissue engineering and regenerative procedures, this 3D scanner further enhances their minimally-invasive interventions that are optimized with high-resolution visualization and precise targeting to treat a wide variety of orthopedic, joint, spine, and nerve injuries. The clinic has already implemented the system in numerous procedures, gaining new insights into the nuances of each injury and unique perspectives in minimally-invasive approaches to the critical features and pain triggering points of each injury, including spinal pars defects, sacroiliac dysfunction, spino-sacral anomalies, cranio-cervical instabilities, ligament destabilization, cartilage injuries and arthritic joint pathologies, degenerative disc defects and facet arthropathy affecting nerve roots and branches. In just the first week of implementing the system, it enabled clear visualization of several complex problems that MRI imaging had been unable to fully clarify, including stress fractures in the spine and non-union fractures of the scaphoid bone in the wrist and of the sesamoid, metatarsal, and navicular bones in the foot, as well as complex bone spurs, synovial cysts, and subchondral bone cysts with arthritis that can be patched with orthobiologic scaffolding including patient's own platelet-rich fibrin (PRF), bone marrow stem cells, and other regenerative agents. Furthermore, this technology is extremely valuable for confirming needle placement in small joints such as the atlanto-axial joints, atlanto-occipital joints, and facet joints of the spine.
"We focus on repairing the underlying injuries as directly as possible with minimally-invasive image-guided procedures that let us see and target many types of orthopedic and neurologic problems from every angle," said Dr. McMurtrey. Many patients are forced to resort to steroid injections that further weaken and degenerate their cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons, leading to further problems in the long run. Instead, our practice focuses on regenerative interventions to target underlying tissue injuries and pain generators rather than mask problems with medications or resort to bigger surgeries that can have many severe complications and irreversible life-long consequences that lead to frequent revision surgeries, biomechanical alterations, adjacent level destabilization, hardware failures, fibrotic scar tissue overgrowth, and failure to resolve pain, resulting in failed surgery syndromes. "The goal is to get the most repair, healing, and function directly at injury sites with a combination of regenerative agents including custom-designed autologous stem cell patches, biomaterial scaffoldings, and other factors using the most targeted minimally-invasive approaches possible, which can allow patients to more quickly return to function while the tissues are stimulated through the repair process," explained Dr. McMurtrey.
Dr. McMurtrey used his knowledge and training in neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, trauma surgery, critical care, and interventional procedures to study the application of stem cells and tissue engineering in many types of injuries and conditions. He has operated with top surgeons around the world from inner city trauma centers to top academic surgical programs, and he is one of the only doctors in the world who has such a unique breadth of surgical training along with extensive experience in tissue engineering and stem cell research at top universities. "I was managing multiple traumas, complex surgeries, and critical care units with over a hundred patients a day at busy Level I trauma centers when I became interested in improving operative outcomes and figuring out why some patients could recover and thrive while other patients seemed to degenerate and decline," said Dr McMurtrey. "It was heartbreaking to have so many injuries for which we had no medical or surgical solution, and even though we could bolt the spine and screw bones together under standard fluoroscopic imaging, we still could not repair many other types of injuries to the brain, spinal cord, nerves, discs, facets, cartilage, and joints." Because of these limitations, Dr. McMurtrey used his research experience in bioengineering and molecular and cellular biology of cell signaling mechanisms to study stem cells and tissue engineering at some of the top research labs in the world. "I discovered how to build 3D tissues from stem cells, including nanopatterned neural architecture from patients own stem cells with functionalized biomaterial scaffolding while at the University of Oxford, earning highest distinction and publication in several top academic research journals, and taking us a step forward towards clinical implementation and future strategies," said Dr. McMurtrey.
"I also applied 3D tissue engineering techniques to orthopedic tissue injuries, combining mesenchymal stem cells with biomaterial scaffolding architecture that can be designed with many types of spatially compartmentalized signaling factors." This approach creates a potent triple combination of regenerative agents packed into a biocompatible patch that can integrate into the injured tissue defects and help stimulate repair to reconstruct proper tissue architecture, and the final piece of the puzzle was how to place these regenerative patches at injury sites in the least invasive way possible. "We are at the forefront of regenerative medicine interventions, and the Ciartic Move finally enables the best combination of minimally-invasive procedures to target injuries, lesions, cysts, defects, tears, fissures, and fractures with the highest resolution imaging."
Dr. McMurtrey explained how many patients have painful conditions that surgery cannot address at all, or issues where surgery can do more harm than good, in addition to the many patients who have already undergone spine fusions or joint surgeries yet still continue to have significant pain and dysfunction. "The Ciartic Move device is a powerful tool to help us find and target those sources of pain and directly treat a variety of injuries with minimally-invasive techniques that promote long-term recovery and more regenerative options to help repair tissue injuries and defects directly, and in this way, this device and approach are really leading us into the future."
About Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute: Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute specializes in interventional orthopedics, spine, nerve, pain, & sports medicine with a focus on regenerative procedures and minimally-invasive image-guided techniques, and also seeks to conduct research and provide innovative advancements in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. For more information, visit https://www.alpinespineorthopedics.com/ and follow @AlpineSpineOrthopedics https://www.instagram.com/alpinespineorthopedics/
Share this article