Anterior cervical interbody fusion with treathed cylindrical bone versus bak-cace:: a comparative study

The authors conducted a prospective and randomized study in 44 consecutive patients requiring cervical interbody fusion following anterior cervical discectomy to compare the efficacy of heterologous threaded cylindrical bone (Unilab Surgibone) versus titanium implant (Bak-C; Spine-Tech, Minneapolis). The patients were evaluated between two and five years postoperatively and the objetives of the study were to assess the potential differences in implant shifting, interespace collapse, angulation, maintenance of cervical alignment and lordosis, and clinical and radiographic fusion succes rates between the two fusion substrates. Clinical results were satisfactory with both types of implant. However the threaded cylindrical titanium implant was found to be superior to the heterologous threaded cylindrical bone as an interbody substrate after single- and multiple-level anterior cervical decompression procedures with respect to maintenance of cervical interspace height, interspace angulation and radiographic fusion succes rates.