A 6.5-year follow-up of 14 patients who underwent ProDisc total disc arthroplasty for combined long-standing degenerative lumbar disc disease and recent disc herniation.

A highly selected cohort of nine women and five men (mean age±standard error of the mean, 39.6±10.2 years) with discogenic low-back pain (duration: 75.4±97.5 months) and radiculopathy due to disc herniation (duration: 9.4±11.8 months) underwent anterior microdiscectomy and ProDisc-L II arthroplasty (Synthes, Oberdorf, Switzerland) (L5/S1 in 13 patients, L4/5 in one). As reported earlier, initial results were excellent in 11 and good in three patients at 17.8±4.7 months. At an average of 6.5 years after surgery, all were reassessed using the SWISSDISC-questionnaire, which involves the EuroQol-5D and North American Spine Society evaluations (general health, low-back and lower limb status), and a telephone call. Patients reporting an unsatisfactory outcome were re-examined clinically and radiologically. Results were excellent for 10, good for two, satisfactory for one, and poor for one patient. Visual analog scores for back and leg pain at 6.5 years had improved significantly relative to preoperative values (p<0.01), and were only slightly higher than at 1.48 years (p=0.3). This study confirms the initial favorable results.