Jingubang: A Novel Magnet-Free Fully Biocompatible Growing Rod

Scoliosis is a medical condition where a person’s spine curves sideways in an “S” or “C” shape, rather than being straight. Growing rods are medical implants that are commonly used in correction of scoliosis for children. While the children grow, the rods also grow alongside them. This makes sure the treatment doesn’t impair children’s growth, saving them 12-15cm vertical height.
The common growing rod technology, namely MCGRs, despite their revolutionary advantages, the magnetic actuators used to enable growth has been reported to lead to biocompatibility issues, where the rare earth metals released into the blood stream cause toxicity. Moreover, they also present mechanical complications.
We developed a novel magnet-free and fully biocompatible growing rod technology as a replacement for the magnetic actuators of the growing rods to address the biocompatibility issues, ensuring the rods can be used without any adverse effects, and improved the design to minimize the mechanical complications.