• Jiantao Liu, Xijing He, Zhengchao Gao, Binbin Niu, Dongbo Lv, and Yanzheng Gao.
• Department of Spine and Spinal Cord, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, No.7, the Weft Fifth Road, Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, Henan, People's Republic of China.
• Arch Orthop Trauma Surg. 2019 Jun 1; 139 (6): 751-760.

ObjectiveTo design a novel prosthesis, a movable artificial lumbar complex (MALC), for non-fusion reconstruction after lumbar subtotal corpectomy and to evaluate the stability, range of motion and load-bearing strength in the human cadaveric lumbar spine.MethodsBiomechanical tests were performed on lumbar spine specimens from 15 healthy cadavers which were divided in three groups: non-fusion, fusion and intact group. The range of motion (ROM), stability and load-bearing strength were measured.ResultsThe prosthesis was composed of three parts: the upper and lower artificial lumbar discs and the middle artificial vertebra. Both the MALC and titanium mesh cage re-established vertebral height, and no spinal cord compression or prosthesis dislocation was observed at the operative level. Regarding stability, there was no significant difference in all directions between the intact group and non-fusion group (P > 0.05). Segment movements of the specimens in the non-fusion group revealed significantly decreased T12-L1 ROM and significantly increased L1-2 and L2-3 ROM in flexion/extension and lateral bending compared with those in the fusion group (P < 0.05). Regarding load-bearing strength, when the lumbar vertebra was ruptured, there was no damage to the MALC and titanium mesh cage, but the maximum load in the non-fusion group was larger (P > 0.05).ConclusionsCompared with titanium cages, the MALC prosthesis not only restored the vertebral height and effectively preserved segment movements without any abnormal gain of mobility in adjacent inter-vertebral spaces but also bore the lumbar load and reduced the local stress load of adjacent vertebral endplates.

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