The study includes 280 patients who underwent single-level disc replacement with 265 patients who underwent ACDF. There was a 75.9 percent follow-up rate for the disc replacement patients and 70 percent follow-up for the fusion patients.
The researchers found:
1. Neck Disability Index, neck and arm pain and SF-36 score improvement occurred by 1.5 months in both groups. The patients in both groups maintained improvements seven years after surgery. At that time, 86.1 percent of the disc replacement group, compared with 80.1 percent of the fusion group, reported NDI success.
2. The average NDI score showed a 30-plus point improvement for both groups while the average SF-35 PCS/MCS improvement was 13.1 and 8.2 for the disc replacement group, compared with 10.7 and 8.3 for the fusion patients.
3. Almost all — 92.8 percent — of the disc replacement patients reported neurological success, compared with 79.7 percent of the fusion patients. The overall success rate varied between the procedures as well: 74.9 percent for disc replacement and 63.2 percent for the fusion patients.
4. There were 17.5 percent of the disc replacement patients and 16.6 percent of the fusion patients who had an implant-related or implant-surgical procedure-related adverse event by seven years after surgery. Among the disc replacement patients, 6.4 percent underwent a second surgery at the index level, compared with 10.9 percent of fusion patients.
5. Almost all of the disc replacement patients — 90.9 percent — were satisfied with their treatment seven years after surgery, compared with 85.6 percent of the fusion patients.
6. At two years after surgery, 5.9 percent of the disc replacement patients reported bridging bone; at seven years, 13 percent of the patients had reported bridging bone.
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