A study published in The Spine Journal found that Orthofix's M6-C artificial cervical disc was safe, effective and noninferior to anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for the treatment of cervical disc degeneration.
The two-year study, conducted at 23 U.S. sites, evaluated the safety and efficacy of M6-C compared to ACDF for the treatment of single-level symptomatic cervical radiculopathy with or without spinal cord compression.
"Patients with degenerative cervical radiculopathy treated with the M6-C disc had significant improvements in neck and arm pain, function and quality of life scores," Frank Phillips, MD, co-author of the study, said in a Jan. 28 news release.
Furthermore, M6-C patients had a notable reduction of pain and opioid use compared to ACDF patients, Dr. Phillips said. "At 24 months, patients in the ACDF group who were still using pain medications had a seven times higher rate of opioid use than those in the M6-C disc group."
The two-year study compared 160 M6-C subjects to a matched subset of 189 ACDF controls. The overall success rate for the primary endpoint for the M6-C disc patients was 86.8 percent at 24 months and 79.3 percent in the control group.
Click here for more details on the study.