Design principle and research development of artificial lumbar disc prosthesis

Bai Wen-yuan; Gu Hong-sheng; Liao Zhen-hua; Liu Wei-qiang

doi:10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.2013.39.018

Abstract：BACKGROUND:Artificial Lumbar disc replacement as a new choice for the treatment of degenerative disc disease has aroused widespread concern by clinicians because of the preservation of lumbar vertebra’s biomechanical characteristics during pain eliminating. While the design of the prosthesis structure and material needs further study and validation. <br> OBJECTIVE:To review the structure and material types of several newly designed artificial lumbar discs, then to discuss the trends in the optimization design of prosthesis, in order to provide instruction for the design and assessment of new lumbar artificial disc prosthesis. <br> METHODS:The PubMed database, CNKI database and SinoMed database were searched for related articles. New articles related to artificial lumbar disc structure, material, in vivo and in vitro biomechanics were included. Repetitive studies and stale perspectives were excluded. A total of 46 articles were summarized and discussed in the end. <br> RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Artificial lumbar disc has developed for nearly 30 years, the design of structure and biological material has been in continuous improvement. At first, we summarized the principle and current situation in the design of movement reservation, movement constraint, instant fixation, base material, weight-bearing material and coating material of artificial lumbar disc prosthesis, then combined with the exist newly in vivo and in vitro biomechanical results to evaluate different kinds of design with the recent research trend to prospect the development of biomimetic design, material improvement, the optimization design of prosthesis and assisted devices.