Good morning Dr. Piana, thank you for your cooperation in participating in this new issue of Today we Meet, our monthly section dedicated to employees and partners of IBI. I would say let’s start with a brief introduction about yourself!

Good Morning, thank you for having invited me. I introduce myself: my name is Raimondo Piana and I’m the Director of the Orthopaedic Oncology Surgery Unit at the City of Health and Science in Turin. I work with my group mainly on benign and malignant tumor pathologies of bone and soft tissues, in both pediatric and adult age.

How do you discover SmartBone®?

I discover SmartBone® through direct contact with IBI, applying it initially on simple cases and then using it on more and more complex cases.

Which are the main characteristics that make SmartBone® better than the other bone substitutes on the market?

It is a material with a load-bearing structure and for this reason it can be used in cavity defects of the bone where it is necessary to restore an initial mechanical stability. It has an excellent colonization potential by the patient’s native bone and can be “customized” according to the patient’s needs directly in the operating room. It is also easy to use thanks to the different shapes and dimensions in which it is supplied.

Do you think there are aspects of SmartBone® that could be improved? If so, which ones?

Absolutely, for example, a dedicated instrumentation could be designed to implement the cutting procedure to come as close as possible to the shape of the cavity defect in the bone to be filled.

What surgical procedure do you use SmartBone® with?

SmartBone® can be used in several procedures but in our experience the main use is in cavitary bone defects caused by benign tumors, that are quite frequent in our field. By making an osteotomy (a sort of flap) in the patient’s bone, the tumor is cured and the residual defect is filled with the bone substitute, then the osteotomy access is closed. The success of the procedure depends on recreating a “biological chamber” that allows the recipient’s bone to colonize the bone substitute.

Thank you for making yourself available and sharing your experience!

Thank you too, see you soon.