LISA — Lumbar Implant for Stiffness Augmentation

Overview

LISA (Lumbar Implant for Stiffness Augmentation) was developed by Backbone to reduce chronic pain related to degenerative diseases of the lumbar spine — while preserving form, function and motion.

Unlike spinal fusion, LISA is a stabilization implant rather than a fusion device. It has been CE marked since 2018 and was evaluated in a clinical study in five European centres. Backbone has since been acquired by Companion Spine.

Key features

• Non-fusion, motion-preserving lumbar stabilization
• Targets chronic pain from degenerative lumbar disease
• CE marked since 2018
• Multi-centre European clinical study

Our contribution

Backbone asked Bluewater Medical to fix a tensioner that was not working well. The original instrument had 14 parts, could not be taken apart for cleaning, had sharp edges that could cut gloves and was heavy and unintuitive to use.

We went back to the user needs, proposed a change to the implant itself so that only one end of the band has to be pulled, and designed a new tensioner with just four parts — fully dismountable, easy to clean and ergonomic.

After positive surgeon feedback, Backbone gave us the rest of the instrument set: the cage holder with integrated re-director plate, lock introducer, left and right hooks and trial implants.

“Bluewater did a fantastic job developing the LISA instrument set for us. Their talent, their expertise, their ability to listen and their understanding of customer needs in the field were the perfect ingredients to create an intuitive, innovative, user-friendly and elegantly designed set of instruments.”— Nazanine Sahami, President & CEO, Backbone