Formetric 4D

At SPONDYLOS Laser Spine Lab, we are particularly sensitive towards the use of X-rays. Digital X-rays of low radiation are necessary for the diagnosis and testing of the treatment, but their use must be that of absolute necessity and not abusive. Consequently we use them at the first visit and usually after 2 years.

For this reason, the use of surface topography technology is necessary to test the treatment. Formetric 4D, which SPONDYLOS brought in 2008, for the first time to Greece, is the avant-garde in technology of surface topography, for use only by the Scientific Director Dr Dimitris Papadopoulos, Orthopaedics Surgeon.

Formetric 4D is a medical control device and should be used by physicians for diagnostic purposes only and not by technicians who disregard the medical profession unknowingly.

Using Moire principle and after computer processing, without touching the patient, a harmless light and Laser scanner offers us three-dimensional imaging of the Spine with the almost the precision of an X-ray.

With Formetric 4D we can measure:

• The Cobb scoliotic
• The kyphotic angle
• The rotation of the vertebrae
• The humps
• The inclination and the rotation of the pelvis
• The inclination and the rotation of the shoulders
• The body balance

Accuracy in our highly experienced hands (> 34,000 examinations in 13 years) is > 90% (86% -96%) according to an X-ray. The following work of our Scientific Director, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, was presented at the International Congress of Spine Diseases in Barcelona in 2011.

Is the Surface Topography a helpful tool for the management of scoliosis:D.Papadopoulos, SOSORT Congress, Barcelona 2011.   

It is a precious instrument to ascertain the corrections taken by the brace. It is as if the patient has had an X-ray, since this test is performed a few minutes after the removal of the brace and before the spine has time to return to its non-correct position

It can also compare the main measurements in later re-examinations.