Certainly one of the longest gestation periods in medical technology has to be that of the biologics revolution in orthopedics. Though a hot topic at clinical meetings for the better part of a decade, both physicians and industry executives have asked themselves when this potentially breakthrough technology will finally make it into clinical practice. The buzz around Infuse Bone Graft, the recombinant human bone morphogenic protein (rhBMP-2) from Medtronic Inc. 's Medtronic Sofamor Danek division (MSD), at this year's North American Spine Society (NASS) meeting, held in Montreal, has left many thinking that the revolution in clinical practice long-promised by biologics may finally be at hand.
Approved last summer, Infuse was one of the hot topics at NASS due to the release of recent clinical trial findings that, while not news per se—some of the data...