Disc Replacement in the US
Many people call us and ask what can’t I get disc replacement in the US or why did my doctor not offer me disc replacement.
You can get disc replacement in the US, but there are several limitations.
The first set of limitations come from the FDA. Since the studies were typically only done on patients with one bad disc the FDA has for the most part limited use of disc replacement in the USA to one disc surgeries.
The second limitation is age, again the FDA only allowed patients under 60 in the trials so the approval only allows for disc replacement surgery for those under 60 years of age.
If these FDA limitations were not enough to eliminate most patients from being offered disc replacement in the US as it turns out many US insurance carriers still consider disc replacement experimental and specifically exclude the disc replacement surgery from payment.
So let’s say you fit within these guidelines and are in fact offered disc replacement, now you must consider your disc replacement options and what type of product you are being offered!
Most disc replacement products approved by the FDA and offered in the US are what we consider outdated. These early free floating ball in socket type disc replacement implants have several draw backs. Surgical complications like implant migrations and implant subsidence were fairly common in early designs. Long term complications like facet joint wear and post op pain are also common due to the unnatural and uncontrolled freedom of motion and fixed center of rotation in these early disc replacement designs.
Due to these limitations fewer than 10 percent of Americans will be offered disc replacement and many will chose to go overseas for safer more advanced disc replacement implants like the Spinal Kinetics M6 Disc Replacement.
Tragically, patients with multiple bad discs, severe loss of disc space, previous surgeries and many other non-medically relevant factors may be excluded from disc replacement surgery in error. Additionally, it is quite likely that single level procedures are often performed when multi-level indications exist, resulting in poor results and risky second surgeries. Multi-level Disc Replacements are performed with great success, and three or four level Lumbar and Cervical disc replacements are quite common.
The Spinal Kinetics M6 Disc Replacement eliminates the complications and long term risks with new technology and design that prevents implant migration and controls motion in a natural way.
Artificial Disc Replacement implants now in use offer greatly improved safety and something called “Quality of Motion” that makes them truly deserve the title “Artificial Disc Replacement”.
What is Quality of Motion
Modern Artificial Disc Replacement technology has come a long way now and thousands of fusion surgeries are being avoided. These improved artificial disc replacement products can now provide a natural “Quality of Motion” unlike any of the early artificial disc replacement implants.
Improved Design
Unlike early artificial disc replacement products, the advanced artificial disc replacements available today have improved end plate attachment design to reduce implant migration and the risk of a revision surgery. These artificial disc replacement products also now have “motion control” to reduce joint hyper-activity which leads to the long term complications and pain caused by those early ball-in-socket type artificial disc replacement products. This joint hyper-activity has been found to stress the facet joints, ligaments, and muscles causing complications and pain. The new generation artificial disc replacement implants also feature the added safety of shock absorption. This shock absorption will help to prevent injury to adjacent discs and vertebra.
We are now using the breakthrough Spinal Kinetics M6 artificial disc replacement for the Lumbar and Cervical spine. The Spinal Kinetics M6 is the first artificial disc replacement product to truly deserve the title “Artificial Disc Replacement”. This implant achieves the ultimate goal of replicating the healthy human disc. By providing shock absorption and graded variable motion resistance, the M6 disc replacement works in concert with the remaining human discs, to provide the best possible outcome. This “Quality of Motion” is a major benefit not available in any other disc replacement implant we have seen!
We can now do multi-level artificial disc replacement, lumbar and cervical artificial disc replacement, even fusion with disc replacement hybrid procedures. These solutions come without many of the complications involved with fusion surgery and early artificial disc replacement products, many still in use today.
Learn more about The Spinal Kinetics M6 Disc Replacement here http://www.artificialdiscreplacement.com/index.html
Disc Replacement Wiki Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervertebral_disc_arthroplasty