Share This Information With Your Doctor(s)

PediGuard™ may significantly reduce radiation exposure and risk for inadvertent pedicle screw placement as compared to other freehand techniques.

The following questions about radiation exposure could be posed to your surgeon:

• What procedure will he use and will it require extensive radiation exposure?
• Is it possible to cut down or to minimize radiation exposure?
• What tools will he use to cut down on total radiation, before and during surgery?
• If you’re having implants in your spine that will be fixed by placing pedicle screws, how are the correct placements of the screws monitored?
• Will your surgeon use state-of-the-art technology, such as the PediGuard™ device*, to correctly place pedicle screws while cutting down on the necessity of pre-op CT scans and thus, more radiation exposure?

The use of PediGuard™, besides reducing radiation exposure, may also allow a significant reduction of the risk of inadvertent pedicle screw misplacement as compared to other freehand techniques.

PediGuard is the only pedicle screw pilot-hole preparation device to provide audio and visual feedback in real time to the surgeon in response to a possible cortex perforation. Surgeons who use PediGuard do not have to use continuous fluoroscopic guidance, which reduces ambient radiation by about 25-30 percent, not only for you, the patient, but also for everyone in the O-R.

"Less use of fluoroscopy per case means significantly less accumulated radiation exposure," said Randal R. Betz, MD, Chief of Staff, Shriners Hospitals for Children Philadelphia and lead investigator for an ongoing, multi-site, randomized post-market study of PediGuard™. "With PediGuard, you’re cutting down on radiation—and that’s huge."