Clinical and radiological evaluation of cervical disc arthroplasty with 5-year follow-up: a prospective study of 384 patients

Background Cervical total disc replacement was developed to avoid known complications of cervical fusion. The purpose of this paper was to provide 5-year follow-up results of an ongoing prospective study after implantation of cervical disc prosthesis. Methods Three hundred and eighty-four patients were treated using Mobi-C cervical disc (Zimmer Biomet, Troyes, France) and included in a prospective multicentre study. Routine clinical and radiological examinations were reported preoperatively and postoperatively with up to 5-year follow-up. Complications and revision surgeries were also explored. Results Results at 5 years showed significant improvement in all clinical outcomes (NDI, VAS for arm and neck pain, SF-36 PCS and MCS). Motion at index level increased significantly from 6.0° preoperatively to 8.0°, and 72.1% of the implanted segments were still mobile (referring to threshold of ROM > 3°). Proximal and distal adjacent discs showed no significant change in average motion 5 years after surgery compared to baseline. Ossification resulting in complete fusion was observed in 16.4% of the implanted segments. Distal and proximal adjacent disc degeneration occurred in 42.2% and 39.1% of patients, respectively. Complications rate was 8.9%, and 1.5% of the patients had reoperation at the index level. Surgery rate of adjacent discs was 2.9%. An increased percentage of working patients and a decrease in medication consumption were observed. At 5 years, 93.3% patients were satisfied regarding the overall outcome. Conclusions In this study, favourable 5-year follow-up clinical and radiological outcomes were observed with a low rate of adjacent level surgery. Graphic abstract These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.