The LinQ® SI Joint Stabilization System
Minimally Invasive, SI Joint Implant
Inflammation or irritation of the SI joints may cause pain in the lower back, abdomen, groin, buttocks, or legs. Minimally invasive SI joint fusion is a procedure designed to stabilize the SI joints by grafting the sacrum to the ilium using instrumentation, bone graft, or both in order to fuse the bone, limiting movement.
SI Joint implants are intended to stabilize your sacroiliac joint and provide an environment for fusion (joining bones together into one solid structure) to occur.
The LinQ system uses a posterior approach with SI joint fusion, which has several advantages:
- Physicians can use a minimally invasive approach through a small incision.
- Insertion of the device causes minimal tissue disruption.
- Bone graft can be delivered within the device to promote a fusion.
The LinQ SI Joint Stabilization System provides SI joint dysfunction patients with a minimally invasive option to combat pain. After a thorough diagnostic process, physicians may help alleviate, and in many cases eliminate, chronic pain by placing a single LinQ allograft into the SI joint. This single implant may help patients immediately regain joint stability – and with its large graft window, the LinQ SI Joint Stabilization System helps create an ideal environment for long-term fusion.
This unique procedure is minimally invasive and involves implanting one small bone allograft into the SI joint to stabilize and fuse the dysfunctional joint. The entire procedure is done through a single, small incision on the patient’s back. Patients leave the hospital or surgery center the same day, shortly after surgery and can usually resume daily living activities within a couple of weeks, depending on how well they are healing and based on physician’s orders.
Average VAS Reduction
At the three-month, six-month, and twelve-month, patients reported an average of 70% improvement in their pain symptoms after implant.
Serious Adverse Events
Data shows zero serious adverse events (SAE), suggesting that LinQ is safer than the lateral approach, which reports 15.1% SAE incidence.
Procedure Satisfaction
Over 85% of patients treated with PainTEQ LinQ are satisfied with their results and would recommend the procedure to a friend.
SECURE Study
The SECURE study is the first-ever single-arm, multi-center, prospective evaluation of PainTEQ’s posterior approach to SI Joint Stabilization.
Who Is This Procedure For?
See if the LinQ Procedure is Right for Your Pain
Diagnosis
- The sacroiliac joint or SI joint (SIJ) is the joint between the sacrum and the ilium bones of the pelvis, which are connected by strong ligaments. They sit on the left and right side of your spine. The primary role of the SI joint is to provide stability for the pelvis and to bear the load of the upper body when you stand or walk and shift that load to your legs. It is an essential component for energy transfer (or shock absorber) between the legs and the torso.
- Sacroiliac joint dysfunction generally refers to pain in the sacroiliac joint region that is caused by abnormal motion in the sacroiliac joint, either too much or too little motion due to the lack of support from the once strong and taut ligaments. In fact, research suggests the SI joint is the source of pain for up to 30 percent of people with chronic low back pain.
- Common problems of the sacroiliac joint are often called sacroiliac joint dysfunction (also termed SI joint dysfunction; SIJD). Your physician may also refer to sacroiliac joint pain by other terms like sacroiliitis, SI joint degeneration, SI joint inflammation, SI joint syndrome, SI joint disruption, SI joint insufficiency, SI joint strain and arthritis.
Causes
- The pain starts when your SI joint becomes inflamed. There are several reasons it could happen, but Hypermobility (too much movement, the joint is too loose) and Hypomobility (too little movement) are at the root of the problem:
- Hypermobility: The ligaments that encase the SI joint may be disrupted due to injury or degenerate due to age, allowing the joint to have excessive motion. This excessive motion may inflame and disrupt the joint and surrounding nerves.
- Hypomobility: Often caused by arthritis, this triggers the bones to rub against one another and create extreme pain and may inhibit mobility.
- The root causes of SI Joint dysfunction include but are not limited to a traumatic event or impact, pregnancy, abnormal walking patterns, previous spine surgery, infections, previous iliac crest bone grafts, and arthritis.
Symptoms
- SI joint dysfunction usually causes dull low back pain on one side (and possibly the leg and buttock).
- SI joint pain can present as sciatica-like symptoms, including leg pain, burning, numbness and tingling.
- The pain is often a mild to moderate ache around the dimple (low back) region of the spine.
- The pain may become worse and sharp while doing activities and can be triggered by standing up from a seated position or lifting the knee toward the chest during stair climbing or walking uphill.
- Pain is typically on one side or the other, but the pain can occasionally be on both sides.
- You may notice that it bothers you more in the morning and gets better during the day.
- With severe SI joint pain, there may be referred pain into the hip, groin, and occasionally down the leg, but rarely does the pain radiate below the knee.
- Muscle tightness and tenderness in your hips or buttocks.
- Pain can be referred from the SI joint down into the buttock or back of the thigh, and in rare occasions, to the foot.
- Low back pain and stiffness, often on one side, that often increases with prolonged sitting and prolonged walking.
- Disturbed sleep patterns and disturbed sitting patterns due to pain (unable to sit for long periods, sitting on one side).
- Feeling of leg instability (buckling, giving way).
Why Seek Treatment?
- Left untreated, sacroiliitis causes a loss of mobility for some people and progression of pain symptoms, such as increased sciatic nerve pain. Untreated pain also can disrupt your sleep and lead to psychological conditions like depression.
- Sacroiliitis associated with ankylosing spondylitis can progress over time. Over time, this type of arthritis causes the vertebrae (bones) in your spine to fuse together and stiffen.
- The LinQ™ procedure offers several benefits compared to traditional SI joint surgery:
- Safe posterior approach away from nerves and large blood vessels
- Minimally invasive
- No metal implanted
- Fast Recovery Time
- Proven Effective Results
Is LinQ Stabilization
Right For You?
If you suffer from chronic SI joint, low back and/or leg pain, please take our online diagnostic to see if minimally invasive SI joint stabilization is right for you.
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