Cervical Spine Arthroplasty: Kinematics of Cervical Arthroplasty

Abstract

Cervical disc arthroplasty is a relatively young surgical concept in the history of surgical interventions designed to treat pathologic conditions of the cervical spine. The introduction of these devices has stimulated novel studies aimed at understanding motion in the cervical spine, and driven investigators to examine the consequences that result from surgical alteration of pathologic structures. The study of “cervical kinematics” has evolved from basic analysis of flexion/extension radiographs to complex, computer-assisted modeling that aides investigators in understanding concepts such as center of rotation, functional spinal unit translation, and coupled motion. In recent years, kinematic studies have contributed to our understanding of adjacent level degeneration and index-level facet loading. We review the young science of cervical arthroplasty kinematics.