At the Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2013 Annual Meeting, Robert Jackson, MD, lead author of a recent study comparing cervical disc replacement outcomes and cost to spinal fusion, presented his findings, according to an article in Medscape.
The study examined the differences between performing cervical disc replacement with LDR's Mobi-C disc prosthesis to spinal fusion for patients with two-level symptomatic cervical disc degeneration. There were 575 patients who either received one-level disc replacement, one-level ACDF, two-level disc replacement or two-level ACDF.
Dr. Jackson reported same level secondary surgery rates at the two year follow-up:
• 8.6 percent of one-level fusion patients
• 2.4 percent of the one-level disc replacement patients
• 12.4 percent of the two-level fusion patients
• 3.6 percent of two-level disc replacement patients
Secondary surgery at the adjacent level was reported as:
• 4.9 percent of one-level fusion patients
• 1.2 percent of the one-level disc replacement patients
• 3.8 percent of the two-level fusion patients
• 0.9 percent of two-level disc replacement patients
While the secondary surgery rates were lower among the disc replacement patients, the device costs were higher. According to the report, Medicare will reimburse for cervical disc replacement while some private insurance companies will not.
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