New Movements in Disc Replacement

Baylor evaluates an experimental treatment for treating neck and back pain.

There's a reason why aggravating situations are referred to as "a pain in the neck." After all, chronic neck or back pain can be enormously aggravating, not to mention painful and limiting.

But an experimental treatment currently being studied at Baylor Health Care System could give people with neck and back pain a new option.

A number of Baylor locations are participating in a multicentered U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Kineflex/CT Cervical Artificial New Movements in Disc Replacement. The device is designed to treat cervical disc degeneration, a disorder of the discs located in the neck.

Discs act as cushions between the vertebrae in the spine. As a disc ages or degenerates, it becomes brittle and less flexible. The standard treatment for cervical disc degeneration is fusion surgery, which relieves pain but makes the joint incapable of movement.

"The goal of the Kineflex/C study is to determine if the Kineflex/C artificial baylor evaluates an experimental treatment for treating neck and back pain disc can preserve motion while minimizing or eliminating the pain," says Cameron Carmody, M.D., a spine surgeon and chief of surgery on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, who is a primary investigator of the study. "So far, the device certainly seems to hold promise and could even decrease the need for additional surgeries that sometimes occurs after fusion surgery."

Recovery time with the Kineflex/C artificial disc seems to be the same as with fusion surgery, says Dr. Carmody. He adds that in his experience patients have been happy with the procedure.

Before enrolling in the study, Pat Harrison had unsuccessfully tried pain management therapy to relieve the neck pain he describes as "excruciating." The pain often prevented him from sleeping at night and playing with his children.

But when he woke up after the Kineflex/C disc replacement surgery in August 2006, the 48-year-old Harrison was pain free—and has remained that way ever since, other than some minor discomfort as his incision healed. He went home the day after surgery and was back to his normal routine in just a couple of weeks.

"This is the best I've felt in years," Harrison says. "I can carry my kids around on my back and wrestle with them, and I recently went fishing for four days. I'm thrilled with how everything worked out."

By Amy Lynn Smith

The Kineflex/C clinical trial is currently open for enrollment. Eligible participants must be 18 to 60 years old, be diagnosed with single-level symptomatic cervical disc disease, and have had no prior cervical fusion surgery. To view the details of this trial please visit our on-line trial listing.