CERVICAL DISC ARTHROPLASTY NOT “EXPERIMENTAL.” WELL, YEAH. (Orthopedics This Week)
Why is the most studied spinal implant in history considered to be “experimental”?
Researchers from the U.S. and Brazil completed a massive review of the cervical disc arthroplasty literature. The team leader, Dan Riew, M.D., director of cervical spine surgery at Columbia University in New York, also hoped to refine the criteria for patient selection.
Their work, “Evidence-based Use of Arthroplasty in Cervical Degenerative Disc Disease,” appears in the January 8, 2019 edition of International Orthopedics.
Dr. Riew told OTW, “Cervical disc arthroplasty is becoming an ever more popular alternative to ACDF [anterior cervical discectomy and fusion], as well as other non-fusion decompression options. The literature on this topic is rapidly growing. We wanted to perform a comprehensive review of the latest randomized trials, as well as meta-analyses to inform surgeons, as well as patients about the latest research on the topic.”
“The purported benefits of arthroplasty are two: that they preserve motion and that they decrease the incidence of adjacent level pathology. As far as motion, it’s been w...
