Spine
-
Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Heterotopic ossification in total cervical artificial disc replacement.
Prospective clinical study enrolled in 2 centers (Munich and Liberec) as part of a prospective European multicenter study with ProDisc C (Synthes Inc., Paoli, PA). ⋯ Only 33.8% of the patients did not show any signs of heterotopic ossification, and the rate of spontaneous fusion after TCDR 1 year after surgery was unexpectedly high. There were 49.4% of the patients with grade 2-3 ossification, which lets us suspect an even higher rate of spontaneous fusion after long-term follow-ups. Motion preservation after TCDR is only guaranteed if spontaneous fusion can be prevented. Thus, mobility of the implanted segments needs to be further studied.