Medtronic Releases Mastergraft for U.S. Sales

Medtronic, Inc. rolled out the Mastergraft Strip for the U.S. market. The device is a new, highly flexible ceramic scaffold intended for use in combination with a patient’s own bone for fusing multiple levels of the posterolateral spine. The Mastergraft was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year and has been clinically evaluated by surgeons for a variety of bone grafting procedures with outstanding intra-operative performance.

According to the company, the product provides surgeons with a bone grafting option that offers a continuous latticework for longer grafting procedures at the back of the spine, which often are performed when the spine loses stability or its natural shape. The product’s broad geometric design maximizes bony surface area contact and allows for continuous bone growth over large bony gaps. It is available in unique lengths that eliminate the need to use multiple units of a synthetic product for a long fusion. The combination of these handling characteristics and the features common to all Mastergrat products provides surgeons with a synthetic graft that has all necessary qualities of a scaffold for multi-level posterolateral fusion procedures.

Donald Kucharzyk, M.D., one of the clinical evaluators, said the Mastergraft Strip “provides the flexibility and ease of use that greatly simplifies my operative technique.” Other surgeons who have clinically evaluated the product have been equally impressed with its length and ease of handling during implantation, company officials said.

Medtronic’s Spinal and Biologics business is based in Memphis, Tenn.