The History of ProDisc-C Total Disc Replacement
The ProDisc concept was developed in the late 1980’s by Dr. Thierry Marnay, a French orthopedic surgeon. In early 1990, Dr. Marnay and another surgeon started implanting a series of ProDisc implants in the lumbar spine. A total of 64 patients underwent implantation between 1990 and 1993, and then were followed up to evaluate the performance of ProDisc. A published review of these patients stated that these patients reported good to excellent results after long-term follow-up of up to 14 years.
Based on the early success with 20,000+ ProDisc Lumbar implantations, the concept of the ProDisc-L Total Disc Replacement was applied to the cervical spine and the ProDisc-C Total Disc Replacement was developed by Drs. Rudolf Bertagnoli and Thierry Marnay.
The first ProDisc-C Total Disc Replacement surgery with was performed in Europe in 2002. In 2004, a prospective European multicenter study was initiated to evaluate the ProDisc-C. Short-term results show that ProDisc-C patients achieved a significant improvement in arm and neck pain and disability.
In the United States, an IDE study was initiated in the summer of 2003. The ProDisc-C Total Disc Replacement was approved for use based on the results of this prospective, randomized, multi-center clinical trial (IDE study) in December of 2007.