Extract
The growth of spinal implant and orthobiologic technologies over the last
several years has been increasing in
tempo1
(Fig. 1) and is fast
approaching the size of total hip and knee arthroplasty in annual dollar sales
in the United States. During this time, a number of start-up and established
medical device manufacturers have focused increasing resources on solutions
for spinal problems. The role of the orthopaedic and neurosurgeon in these
enterprises as inventor, owner, and user has contributed to this march of
progress. This paper describes a small (<1%) but increasingly visible
aspect of these advancing technologies, that is, artificial disc
replacement.