The newest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine contains two studies evaluating the safety and effectiveness of Medtronic's recombinant human bone morphogenic protein, Infuse, in spinal fusion surgery.
The studies meta-analyzed data from spinal fusion surgeries that used iiliac crest bone grafts as well as data from Medtronic on patients treated with Infuse.
While the Medtronic product appeared similarly effective to iliac crest bone grafts, both pain and cancer were more commonly reported after the use of Infuse.
Both studies concluded that while Infuse is comparably effective to an iliac crest bone graft, it is correlated with adverse outcomes such as little pain reduction and cancer at higher rates post-surgery.
The studies were funded by Yale University and Medtronic.