A new study published in The Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine examines patients from 30 investigational sites comparing cervical disc replacement with the Prestige LP disc and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.
There were 188 patients who underwent spinal fusion and 209 patients who underwent disc replacement. The study authors found:
1. Among the patients who underwent disc replacement, the success rate was 81.4 percent; for the fusion group, the success rate was 69.4 percent.
2. The patients who underwent disc replacement reported better neck disability index scores than the spinal fusion group.
3. Around 93 percent of patients in the disc replacement group and 92 percent in the fusion group reported adverse events. The difference wasn't statistically significant. However, the spinal fusion group had a higher rate of patients who reported Grade 3 or 4 adverse events, at 47.9 percent, compared with the disc replacement group at 34.4 percent.
4. Half of the patients in the disc replacement group and 82.1 percent of the patients in the fusion group achieved radiographic success.
5. Two years after surgery, 27.8 percent of the patients in the disc replacement group reported heterotopic ossification at superior levels, while 36.4 percent reported it at inferior levels.
"Arthroplasty with Prestige LP cervical disc is as effective and safe as ACDF for the treatment of cervical DDD at two contiguous levels and is an alternative for intractable radiculopathy or myelopathy at two adjacent levels," concluded the study authors.