Investigators in France evaluated the long-term outcomes of 1- and 2-level total disc arthroplasty (TDA) in patients with chronic lumbar degenerative disc disease. A total of 1,187 patients were included, with follow-up ranging from 7 to 21 years.
The study is available at JBJS.org, along with a video summary providing highlights of the findings:
As concluded by the study authors, “Patients had dramatic and maintained reductions in disability and pain scores over time and low rates of index-level revision or reoperation and adjacent-level surgery relative to published long-term fusion data. Additionally, patients who underwent 1-level lumbar TDA and those who underwent 2-level TDA demonstrated equivalent improvement, as did patients with prior surgery at the index level and those with no prior surgery.”
New Commentary Article
Additional perspective on this study is provided by Daniel G. Tobert, MD. In a commentary article, Dr. Tobert emphasizes the substantial postoperative improvement seen in the study cohort, while also noting questions that remain to be answered, namely, how to select patients who will benefit from this surgery and how lumbar disc replacement compares to anterior interbody fusion. Read the commentary here: Long-Term Benefits After Lumbar Disc Replacement—Questions Remain
Interested in other spine content? Explore JBJS content by subspecialty: What’s Trending in Spine at JBJS.org
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