Two Level Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement Superior To Fusion

eurospine conference

During the recent Eurospine meeting in Berlin, Germany, a paper co-authored by Dr Jeffrey McConnell was presented, which explored the results of one of the longest follow-up studies on cervical total disc replacement to date.

“Long Term Clinical and Radiographic Results of Two-level Cervical Total Disc Replacement from a Level 1 Prospective, Randomized, Clinical Trial”, compared patients who received fusion surgery vs patients who received artificial disc replacement surgery. The highlights:

After 7 years, patients who received the Prestige-LP two level artificial disc replacement had superior overall clinical results when compared to the fusion patients.
Subsequent surgeries were required 3 times less often in patients who received the two-level artificial disc replacement.
Patients who had cervical fusion required surgery at adjacent disc levels twice as often as the patients who had disc replacement.

These long term clinical results demonstrate the effectiveness of total disc replacement at 2 contiguous levels in the cervical spine and the importance of maintaining motion in the cervical spine.

The Prestige-LP two level artificial disc replacement.

Cervical artificial disc replacement is a type of joint replacement procedure. An artificial disc, such as the Prestige LP^TMcervical disc made by Medtronic, is placed between two adjacent cervical vertebrae to replace a diseased cervical disc. It is designed to maintain the distance between two adjacent cervical vertebrae.

Cervical total disc replacement has been demonstrated to be a very effective alternative to the traditional surgery of fusion for painful herniated discs in the neck. Total disc replacement in the neck is more successful because it maintains normal motion in the neck while fusion eliminates motion. This preservation of motion is key to minimizing the degeneration of adjacent cervical discs.

Learn more about cervical disc replacement.