Alternatives to UHMWPE for Total Disc Arthroplasty in the Spine

Alternatives to UHMWPE for Total Disc Arthroplasty in the Spine 

Artificial disc replacemenfs have also been developed that do not incorporate UHMWPE components. These have a MOM bearing system, which presumably is to reduce the amoimt of wear produced. This once again shows the trend of borrowing concepfs from fhe TJR world and applying them to TDRs. In addition, for TDR designs, fhe wear performance of CoCr has been evaluated and was shown to have less wear rate in comparison with titanium alloy designs (Hellier, Hedman, and Kostuik 1992). 

The other TDRs that have also reached clinical trials imder an IDE with the FDA in the United States have MOM bearing surfaces. These two TDRs are the MAVERICK (Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Memphis, TN) and FLEXICORE (SpineCore, Summit, NJ). The MAVERICK was used in Europe before the IDE in the United States began. 

We thank Lauren Ciccarelli and Cara Miller for their review of the chapter. 

Ahrens J., A. Shelokov, and J. Carver. 1998. Normal joint mobilities maintained with an artificial disk. Lecture, International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS), Toronto. 

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