Ostiio, a new Philadelphia-based medical device company, has made it its mission to improve the quality of life for children that suffer from complications of craniofacial defects (in the middle of the face, in lower jaw, or in the rare skull deformation condition, craniosynostosis).
The company was founded by Ari Wes, a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Dr. Jesse Taylor, a plastic surgeon, who saw a need in the craniofacial community for better, safer, and more effective devices for surgery.
Even though these craniofacial conditions are usually treatable and even curable through corrective surgeries, there can still be significant consequences caused by the traditional “distractors” that are frequently used for these procedures.
Distractors are used to pull two pieces of bone apart so that new bone can grow in between. They are commonly used during reconstructive surgery to increase the length of bones.
Currently, external distractors are being used, which results in parents of the craniofacial patients having to turn the protruding screws in the distractor a couple of millimeters per day for the next few months. Basically, this creates some tension on the wires and moves the bones apart to make room for new bone growth, but it is a tedious and nerve-wracking task.
Shockingly, this process is supposedly only as painful as braces straightening teeth, but people have noted that this level of pain is likely heightened because the distractors are usually used on very young children.
So, Ostiio is working to develop a magnetically driven, internal distractor that would improve on the design of traditional distractors, keeping them from protruding out through the skin, eliminating the need for parents to expand them, and overall lessening the risk of infection that they cause.
All of this would overall reduce the level of pain that these little kids feel after their surgeries.
This novel new distractor design is still at the “proof-of-concept” stage, but hopefully the development and approval of the device will move swiftly and be used to improve the quality of life for craniofacial defective patients post-surgery.
To read more about Ostiio and its internal distractor, click here for the MedCity News article!
