SpineGuard SA announced new impressive results reached in the development of its robotic application. Spineguard's DSG enabling technology is based on the local measurement of electrical conductivity of tissues in real time without X-ray imaging, with a sensor located at the tip of the drilling instrument. Its efficacy was proven by more than 90,000 surgeries across the globe and 24 scientific publications.

SpineGuard has entered in 2017 a collaboration with the ISIR (Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique) lab of Sorbonne University, CNRS and INSERM, for the application of DSG to surgical robots and the enhancement of their safety, accuracy and autonomy as well as the optimization of the surgery workflow. The experiment, which results are announced, continuation from those reported late 2021, consists in automatically stopping the drill bit as the tip is aiming at the bone boundary during a vertebral drilling performed autonomously by a robot. However, in order to go further in the challenge and the demonstration of DSG efficacy, the trajectory is now pedicular.

It presents tangential configurations perfectly matching delicate surgical situations where the spinal canal protecting the spinal cord must be avoided, and where the tip does not coast the bone surface in a perpendicular way. The algorithm used for the detection was tuned before the 50 drilling series was performed, and no adjustments or calibrations are needed for each specimen. The ex vivo pig vertebra validation model (butcher shop) does not involve any animal sacrifice.

100% of the drillings stopped within a corridor considered as clinically safe, which consists of 2 millimeters on each side of the interface between bone and the spinal canal. More precisely, all drillings belonged to a -0.9mm/+1.4mm interval, with a mean distance of 0.7mm. This was obtained although the drilling was performed in a totally "blind" manner, with neither utilization of pre-op nor intra-op imaging.

SpineGuard is focusing on the following priorities while investing selectively and with rigor: Boost commercial activities with DSG-Connect and WishBone Medical; Develop a DSG drill bit and a universal drill guide embedding the DSG robotic intelligence; Implement the agreement recently signed with Omnia Medical; Deploy the DSG digital technology in the surgical robotic and dental fields and Sign new strategic partnerships.