A review on the current state of ball-on-socket type artificial lumbar disc prosthesis

Abstract

Total lumbar disc replacement is an alternative to interbody fusion for the effective treatment of symptomatic degenerative disc disease. This paper reviewed the history of ball-on-socket type artificial lumbar disc (ALD) prosthesis, which is a typical ALD prosthesis and summarized the ALD prosthesis research progress, according to different materials such as metal-on-metal, metal-on-polymer, and polymer-on-polymer prosthesis. The structural design factors of ball-on-socket type ALD prosthesis were analyzed and its prospect of development was also presented. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical reference for the design of the ball-on-socket ALD prosthesis by reviewing the current state of ball-on-socket type ALD prosthesis.