The NanoScope™ system was recently credited with helping a Naples, Florida neurosurgeon relieve the sciatica pain a man suffered in his back for 50 years.
John Koffel began to have back pain following an accident as a teenager. Despite several surgeries, it got worse.
“I dealt with sciatica pain for 50 years. And I lived with that. But then it turned to nerve pain and it got really excruciating, worse to the point where I was debilitated,” Koffel told WINK News. “I had to walk with a walker. I was afraid I was going to be confined to a wheelchair the rest of my life.”
His neurosurgeon, Edison Valle, MD, saw an opportunity to help Koffel, after images of his spine revealed a severely compressed nerve leading to his right leg.
Dr. Valle needed to open a space to free it. Using the NanoScope system, Dr. Valle was able to navigate the space, see and remove scar tissue that had built up from previous surgeries, before aspirating the bone that had put pressure on the nerve.
“It looks like a needle, basically. And it gives you great images,” Dr. Valle told the reporter on the NanoScope system.
The full minimally invasive surgery took about an hour and Koffel saw results immediately.
“This was the first surgery for the system where you use all these tools that are technology-driven and that are in innovation, right, to be able to help somebody like him,” Dr. Valle said.