PEEK Tops Titanium in Seven-Year Test

A seven-year long clinical study comparing the PEEK polymer spinal cage with titanium in the surgical treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) has come down on the side of the PEEK polymer, according to a news release by PRWeb.

The study concluded that a cage made of the high performance PEEK polymer is superior to a titanium cage in maintenance of intervertebral height and cervical lordosis in surgical treatment of CSM.

Chen Y, M.D., and colleagues from the Department of Spine Surgery, Changzhen Hospital, Shanghai, designed the study to compare outcomes of titanium and PEEK cages. A total of 80 patients with 3-level CSM were randomized in a 1:1 ratio into two groups between November 2002 and December 2004. The overall follow-up period of the patients ranged from 86 to 116 months. The average was 99.7 months.

Among the tests used in the evaluation were the JOA (Japanese Orthopedic Association) score and the NDI (Neck Disability Index). Both indicated that patients benefit from cages made of implantable PEEK polymer.

Here are the comments made by the research team as noted by PRWeb: “Although fusion was observed in all patients of two groups at the final follow-up, the titanium group demonstrated significantly inferior clinical outcomes compared to the PEEK group. More loss of the Cobb angles, measurement of spine curvature, and the intervertebral height was observed in the titanium group, resulting in the radiological parameters in the titanium group becoming inferior to the PEEK group at the final follow-up. Cage subsidence rates were 34.5 % in the titanium and 5.4 % in the PEEK group. The higher modulus of the titanium material properties is the likely cause of this, ” they said.