A further development in spinal instrumentation. Technical Commission for Spinal Surgery of the ASIF.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the concepts and use of a new, versatile instrumentation system, the universal spine system (USS), that has been designed to have wide application for pathology of the thoracolumbar spine. Many instrumentation systems for thoracolumbar spinal surgery now exist that were each originally designed to address specific areas of spinal pathology. For example, the recent systems designed to treat scoliosis deformities do not provide the instrumentation and implant support to adequately address other spinal disorders, such as fractures. In addition, most posterior implant systems were not designed for use anteriorly, and vice versa. As a result, surgeons have been required to become familiar with several different instrumentation systems in order to meet the varied needs of a spinal surgery practice. The objective of designing a new system was to simplify the surgical treatment of the commonly encountered spinal disorders by providing the surgeon with a single set of instruments and implants that could be used to treat tumors, trauma, deformities, and degenerative conditions affecting the thoracolumbar spine, via either an anterior or a posterior approach. This paper describes the development of the concepts, instruments, and implants of the USS and provides examples of its application in several case illustrations.