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[Limbfan2020]

Blue Ocean Spine GmbH announces Acquisition of PROLIXO™ Limb Lengthening Technology


Tuttlingen (Germany). Blue Ocean Spine GmbH (BOS), a German medical device manufacturer focused on innovative implant developments announces that it has acquired Prolixo™ GmbH, a German company developing a new limb lengthening technology.

Intramedullary Limb Lengthening is a fast-growing market segment in the orthopedic industry to treat leg length discrepancies or to address non-unions after failed fracture treatments or tumors. The PROLIXO™technology could also be used for spinal applications for the treatment of spinal deformities.

The PROLIXO™ implant concept is developed for lengthening of the lower extremities with a fully load-bearing intramedullary nail. The main competitive advantages are the robustness and reliability with precise distraction increments and a lightweight, user-friendly external remote control based on inductive energy transmission.

It has been developed by Regina Storz-Irion, founder and shareholder of Prolixo™ GmbH. Mrs. Irion says “I am happy that our patented concept, that we have worked on for several years and brought to ’proof of concept’ both in mechanical test setups and cadaver labs, is entering this next stage. We have focused on the technical solution to solve the deficits of current lengthening devices, that still have unacceptably high complication rates. Now it needs medical device expertise and funding to successfully bring it to market and make this technology available to patients all over the globe. BOS brings all of that to the table.”

“We are excited about this technology acquisition” says Guntmar Eisen, founder and CEO of BOS. “This technology is a nice addition to our project portfolio as it is very attractive for all global players in the orthopedic and spine industry that are leading the trauma market with standard intramedullary nailing systems. However, intramedullary lengthening devices still represent a portfolio gap for most of them. Mrs. Storz-Irion has addressed the main problems of intramedullary limb lengthening with a very smart patented solution. We believe we can make it available for patients within 24 months.”


https://orthospinenews.com/2021/03/30/blue-ocean-spine-gmbh-announces-acquisition-of-prolixo-limb-lengthening-technology/

[onlywantafewcmmore]

Could this be better than Stryde?

[a]

Wait for like 10 years and decide. I'd say wait for the other people's experiences and their result.

[Sambollio]

Will it lengthen to the standard max of 8cm?

[Highest]

In 24 months Stryde will be back on the market. Any company that wanted a break through needs to have a full weight bearing nail before Stryde comes back. Possibly Synoste nail but wouldn't hold my breath.

[Thorfinnn]

In 24 months Stryde will be back on the market. Any company that wanted a break through needs to have a full weight bearing nail before Stryde comes back. Possibly Synoste nail but wouldn't hold my breath.

Yeah I wouldn’t get my hopes up for synoste nail. I was hoping that nail would come out within the next 5-10 years and compete with stryde.

[Siegfried]

Does this mean spinal lengthening will be available in the near future as well?

[Going-For-Three]

Does this mean spinal lengthening will be available in the near future as well?

Highly doubt it. If you think the lower extremities are sensitive to nerves, the spine is exponentially more complex with innervation throughout the entire body.

[Thorfinnn]

Highly doubt it. If you think the lower extremities are sensitive to nerves, the spine is exponentially more complex with innervation throughout the entire body.

Yeah I agree Spinal lengthening is too dangerous

[Body Builder]

Does this mean spinal lengthening will be available in the near future as well?

Impossible for many reasons.

A new intramedullary magnetic nail is always good news.
But I hope it is fully weight bearing otherwise is almost useless as we have plenty non weightbearing nails already.

Also, I hope the price will be more affordable as stryde is very expensive.
We'll see.

[Polvorón]

Does this mean spinal lengthening will be available in the near future as well?

That is a very interesting topic, I think that it could be a chance because these bones grow from the surface, not from inner growth plates, maybe we can recreate those "grow surfaces" without breaking the bone. We can find a better thread and discuss about that here.

[Bantem]

This is great news for us, more competition = better prices for consumers. Hopefully Stryde get's cheaper

[MakeMeTallAF]

That is a very interesting topic, I think that it could be a chance because these bones grow from the surface, not from inner growth plates, maybe we can recreate those "grow surfaces" without breaking the bone. We can find a better thread and discuss about that here.

The problem is that the growth plates are fused. We would need to unfuse the growth plates to start growing again in any area (legs, arms, spine etc.)

Unless you mean we should add artificial growth plates, which is a possibility as well I suppose.

My only question is, what do we do about soft tissues? Would growing slowly like during puberty help our soft tissues adapt like how a teen's soft tissues adapt when they grow? Is the reason there are soft tissue problems in limb lengthening solely due to the speed that we lengthen (.75-1mm/day which is much faster than during puberty)?

[Polvorón]

The problem is that the growth plates are fused. We would need to unfuse the growth plates to start growing again in any area (legs, arms, spine etc.)

Unless you mean we should add artificial growth plates, which is a possibility as well I suppose.

Vertebrae grow from the surface, they don't have epiphyseal plates.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=vertebrae+growth+plates&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fd3i71xaburhd42.cloudfront.net%2Ff5af63291c963b53694f140316d67eb345f5ea79%2F3-Figure4-1.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphyseal_plate
This is an interesting topic, we can create a new thread about it if you want. It seems that vertebrae don't need to be cut to place a growth plate, I hope that some day spine lengthening is also available, but better discuss this in a new thread.

[MakeMeTallAF]

That's actually interesting. This is what I found online: " Unlike other long bones of the skeleton, vertebral body epiphyses never ossify, and after the end of the growth period of life they are reduced into thin plates of hyaline cartilage which are situated between vertebral body and intervertebral disc"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8167393/

But functionally I think they're the same thing right, you would have to 'un-reduce' these plates to get the spine to grow again.

But yes if you'd like you could start a new topic. I'm mostly curious about how the soft tissues would grow even if this was theoretically possible. Not just muscles but also organs etc.