Dr. Ross Jones, D.O., an orthopedic spine surgeon with Flagstaff Bone and Joint, was the first in northern Arizona to implant a pair of new devices, the prodisc C SK and C Vivo, in cervical total disc replacement surgery.
Centinel Spine in the News: Flagstaff Bone and Joint Surgeon First in Area to Use New Disc Replacement Devices

“Before, I [would] be putting a square peg in a round hole, and it worked really really good, but we want to be even more specific with the anatomy. Now, when I’m in the operating room, I can actually match the patient’s anatomy with the correct style of implant at each individual level.”
– Dr. Ross Jones (from the article)
Source: Arizona Daily Sun
While disc replacement is a common procedure in response to certain injuries or conditions that cannot be treated with nonsurgical methods — Jones has done at least 350 since 2018 — the C Vivo and C SK are new models for the implants, with shapes that allow for more motion and a better fit to the patient’s anatomy.
… Two doctors at the practice — Jones and partner Dr. John Hall, M.D. — were part of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) Trial for two level indication run by Centinel Spine, the company that makes the discs.
This sort of trial had previously been done with both disc replacement models for one level indication.
The difference in the new models from the previous prodisc C are the shapes and keel size — which give options for a better fit.
Traditionally, disc implants have a projecting bit on both ends called a keel that helps them to stay in place. The SK in C SK stands for small keel and the C Vivo has even smaller spurs to help it connect to the bone rather than any type of keel.
The improvements in prodisc mean a smaller incision is required as a pathway for the keel and, alongside other aspects of their shapes, provide a closer match to the space the replacement disc needs to fill.
“Before, I [would] be putting a square peg in a round hole, and it worked really really good, but we want to be even more specific with the anatomy,” Jones said.
He added: “Now, when I’m in the operating room, I can actually match the patient’s anatomy with the correct style of implant at each individual level.”
When working with bones, Jones said, having a device that more closely fits the shape of the gap reduces the chance the bone will settle around it.
“We don’t really want that. We want our bone to stay its normal shape so we want to conform the metal implant to their anatomy to prevent what we call settling,” he said. “ … You want to do the widest footprint to prevent settling or migration with the shortest height and part of that conformity — getting an endplate that fits the patient’s anatomy — is preventing settling and preventing migration of the implant.”
READ THE FULL STORY AT THE ARIZONA DAILY SUN WEBSITE
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