Artificial cervical disc replacement - An update

Summary Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion is a reliable procedure with excellent clinical and radiological outcomes in 85-95% of the patients. [35,36] It is a procedure with a low peri – and postoperative complication rate. [5,6,7] Thus, these results will be hard to beat by any type of total disc replacement. The crucial points which will probably decide the fate of total cervical disc replacement is the percentage of spontaneous fusion over time, the limitations in restoring disturbed curvatures, intraoperative technology and last not least the pricing of the implants. So far , it seems to be promising technology in the cervical spine as in the lumbar spine which however has to stand the proof of time. References 1. Smith GW, Robinson RA. The treatment of certain cervical–spine disorders by anterior removal of the intervertebral disc and interbody fusion. J Bone Joint Surg Am 1958;40:607–24. 2. Cloward RB. The anterior approach for removal of ruptured cervical disks. J Neurosurg 1958;15:602–17. 3. Cummins BH, R obertson JT , Gill S S. Sur gical e xperience with an implanted artificial cervical joint. J Neurosurg 1998;88:943–8. 4. Delamarter RB, F ribourg DM, Kanim LE, Bae H. ProDisc artificial total lumbar disc replacement: introduction and early clinical results from the United States clinical trial. Spine 2003;28:167–75. 5. Mayer HM, Wiechert K, Korge A, Qose I. Minimally invasive total disc replacement: surgical technique and preliminary clinical results. Eur Spine J 2002;11:S124– 30.