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Eurospine 2016: joimax® launches its new MultiZYTE® SI-Joint Endoscopic Therapy Set and its new Intracs® Intraoperative Navigation Tracking & Control System

Posted on by Antonio Berlen

Karlsruhe – October 05, 2016 – joimax®, the global acting German developer and marketer of technologies and training methods for endoscopic minimally invasive spinal surgery, will again exhibit at Eurospine 2016 taking place from October 5 – 7 in Berlin. During the conference, joimax®will launch two new products – the MultiZYTE® SI Endoscopic Sacroiliac Joint Therapy Set and its new Intracs® Intraoperative Navigation Tracking & Control System.

MultiZYTE® SI Endoscopic Sacroiliac Joint Therapy is developed for the treatment of the Sacroiliac Joint Syndrome (SIJS), which has been rediscovered as a major back pain generator in recent years. This kind of pain is commonly felt in the lower back, the gluteal region, the hip and thigh and can even radiate into the leg and foot. Until the 1930s, SI-Joint was the main reason for low back pain, but since 1934 the focus has been on disc herniation. According to recent studies 15 to 25% of all low back pain is caused by the SI-Joint and up to 43% in patients having undergone lumbosacral fusion. MultiZYTE® SI joimax® now offers a well developed and lasting treatment option for this disease.

The Intracs® Intraoperative Navigation Tracking & Control System was developed in cooperation between joimax® GmbH Karlsruhe and fiagon GmbH in Berlin, both located in Germany. With the Intracs® system, joimax® instruments can be navigated directly at the tip using Fiagons “chip at the tip” technology which allows tracking of instruments with a diameter in the 1mm range. The Intracs ® Navigation and Monitor Unit is integrated in the joimax® Endoscopic Tower and all necessary tools are tailored for the TESSYS® (transforaminal) and iLESSYS® (interlaminar) procedures as well as for minimally invasive stabilization procedures, like EndoLIF® and Percusys®. The main features of the Intracs® system are needle navigation through Vector-Tip-Target processing tools, the merging of 2D X-Rays with 3D- images of a patient’s CT or MRI scans, and the constant orientation control of any endoscope used in joimax procedures.

“With these two new developments we are in the position to enhance our endoscopic minimally-invasive product portfolio, driving adoption rates to meet new heights. With the world unique Intracs® system, navigation is now faster, safer and more accurate than ever before using an electromagnetic (EM) field. Radiation exposure for both, patients and surgeons will be significantly reduced,” says Wolfgang Ries, CEO and founder of joimax®. “Additionally the learning curve for all spinal endoscopic procedures offered by joimax® will now be significantly reduced and the rapid expansion of all these techniques is now well layed-out,” he continues.

JOIMAX® ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF FIRST ENDOSCOPIC AMA CPT CODE Company also releases newly designed joimax® homepage

Posted on by Antonio Berlen

Irvine, CA – September 26, 2016 – The AMA (American Medical Association) released the CPT 2017 Codebook (Current Procedural Terminology), now containing the first endoscopic spinal surgery code no. 62380. This new code covers endoscopic decompression of the spinal cord, nerve root(s), including laminotomy, partial facetectomy, foraminotomy, discectomy and/or excision of herniated intervertebral disc, 1 interspace, lumbar, and will be enforced as of January 1st, 2017. Under this code the specific transforaminal (TESSYS®) and/or interlaminar (iLESSYS®) procedures are fully covered in the USA herewith, which are already marketed by joimax® in 45 countries.

“The definition of this new code in the CPT codebook 2017 is a major milestone towards the acceptance of endoscopic minimally invasive spine surgery techniques and its benefits to both the surgeon and their patients,” states Wolfgang Ries, Founder and CEO of joimax®. Since 2012 joimax®  had been driving this effort to obtain CPT codes as these procedures required submission to payors for reimbursement coverage which was granted only in single cases under temporary codes, so-called T-codes.

“joimax® has been instrumental in driving the effort to obtain full code coverage of endoscopic spinal surgery,” says Daniel Laich, DO, Swedish Convenant Hospital, Chicago, who had been participating and presenting in almost every AMA meeting over the last five years. Due to the high research and publication activities by key users like Albert Telfeian, MD, PhD, at Rhode Island Hospital at Brown University, and a group of users around him, strong evidence has been accepted by AMA authorities, justifying the release of this new CPT code.

Many papers and publications on joimax® products can now be downloaded from the newly released joimax® homepage. The completely redesigned website offers visitors richer insight into the company’s innovative products and systems. A quick and easy access to essential information and features is available, including the latest workshop and education activities, which are essential in endoscopic minimally-invasive spinal surgery.

Meanwhile joimax® offers basic and advanced workshop training courses mainly in the USA, Germany and Austria, and oversees a participation population of almost 3,000 physicians. Independent training courses are also performed in China and Korea to support the fast growing Asian markets. Detailed information about those courses are updated regularly at www.joimax.com.

The website uses the latest technology so the site is compatible with today’s browsers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Visitors can also use the new website to stay informed with the latest company news. The new website goes live today and is located at the same address: https://www.joimax.com.

joimax® STUDIES PUBLISHED IN WORLD NEUROSURGERY TESSYS® system proves to be surgical rescue solution for kyphoplasty complication and thoracic disc herniation.

Posted on by Antonio Berlen

Irvine, Germany, September 14th, 2016 – joimax®, the expert in endoscopic minimally invasive spine surgery, is pleased to announce another publication on its technologies to be released in World Neurosurgery (2016). In the paper called “Transpedicular Lumbar Endoscopic Surgery for Highly Migrated Disc Extrusions, a preliminary series and surgical technique,” published by Krzok G et al, 21 patients underwent this procedure with the TESSYS® system. The paper follows two technical notes by Wagner R et al in which he shows joimax® techniques as surgical rescue solutions in a kyphoplasty complication and another one for the treatment of a thoracic disc herniation, all published in World Neurosurgery.

The first technical note mentioned above describes the case of a 72-year-old woman with a leakage of the kyphoplasty cement into the spinal canal (a described and known complication), where the joimax® technology was successfully used as a rescue solution to remove the cement and decompress the nerval structures preventing major surgery. The second technical note describes the transforaminal endoscopic foraminoplasty and discectomy for the treatment of a thoracic disc herniation. A 31-year-old woman with severe thoracic back pain over one year was successfully treated by using the transforaminal endoscopic approach so that open surgery was not needed.

Over the years a growing number of studies show the outstanding advantages of endoscopic minimally invasive spinal surgery, such as the prospective Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of Ruetten et al in 178 patients and by Hoogland et al in a study of 262 consecutive cases of transforaminal endoscopic spinal surgery. Both were published in Spine 2008, Vol. 33, Issue 9. Another retrospective evaluation with 195 patients of Jasper et al (Clinical Neurology & Neurosurgery 2013, Vol. 115, Issue 10) and a multi-centric MIS prospective registry published by Sclafani et al (IJSS 2015, Vol. 9, Art. 69) with 86 patients, also showed very encouraging results. Beyond that, a special edition in the Journal of Neurosurgery called Neurosurgical Focus, published by Gokaslan Z, Telfeian A and Wang M focused on Endoscopic Spine Surgery was released in February 2016 (JNS 2016, Vol. 40, No. 2).

“Working with Endoscopic Spine Surgery for more than 12 years (her performed already 2,400 Tessys® procedures in daysurgery in analgo-sedation) and seeing its evolution is just amazing and I wonder where we will be in five or ten years from now”, says Menno Iprenburg, MD from Veenhuizen, NL, who continues to be involved in many of these studies.

Albert Telfeian, MD, PhD from Brown University, RI is very happy about the actual hit rate on PubMed when searching for endoscopic spinal surgery, “To date we’ve received a rate of 2,730 papers on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=endoscopic+spinal+surgery and I am really excited how many indications are treatable with endoscopy already today,” said Telfeian.

“Shortly another RCT study will be published by Gibson et al demonstrating the quality and great success rate of endoscopic spine treatments with a high adoption rate, especially in Asian countries, and in some countries where there is more than 50% growth per annum”, says Wolfgang Ries, founder and CEO of joimax®.