PLEASE NOTE: Contracts exclude from coverage, among other things, services or procedures that are considered investigational or cosmetic. Providers may bill members for services or procedures that are considered investigational or cosmetic. Providers are encouraged to inform members before rendering such services that the members are likely to be financially responsible for the cost of these se...

p0020The cervical spine is a linkage of specialized joints and, like other joints, may be the source of significant pain and functional incapacity with age, trauma, and subsequent degeneration. However unlike other major joints, the traditional perception is that motion in the cervical spine is not a necessity and has been routinely sacrificed for pain relief and functional recovery. For more t...

Artificial disc replacement has been widely used in the lumbar spine since the 1980s, and more recently in the cervical spine. However, artificial disc replacement in the cervicothoracic and thoracic regions is very rare. A 43-year-old otherwise healthy male suffered from right sided cervicobrachialgia. X-rays and MRI revealed left C5/6, C6/7 and C7-T1 disc herniation, compromising the neural f...

BACKGROUND The US Food and Drug Administration approved the Charité artificial disc on October 26, 2004. This approval was based on an extensive analysis and review process; 20 years of disc usage worldwide; and the results of a prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial that compared lumbar artificial disc replacement to fusion. The results of the investigational device exemption (IDE)...

Spinal fusion for degenerative disc disease has been associated with a variety of side effects, including increased morbidity, infection, failed back syndrome, pseudoarthrosis, and acceleration of degenerative changes in adjacent intervertebral discs and facet joints. Based on the experience of arthroplasty of hip and other joints, there has been an escalating in research emphasizing the design...

Cervical disc replacement is an emerging motion-preserving technology in the surgical treatment of the cervical degenerative disc disorders used as an alternative to the classic interbody fusion. We present a case report of a patient diagnosed with C6-7 right disc herniation who underwent anterior discectomy and received a total disc replacement using ProDisc C artificial disc prosthesis.

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