Last September news broke that Centinel Spine, LLC had acquired the cervical and lumbar artificial disc systems ProDisc-C, ProDisc-L, ProDisc-C Vivo, ProDisc-C Nova, ProDisc-O and Discover from Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Synthes division.
ProDisc is the best known and arguably most widely implanted disc arthroplasty system in history.
Since buying ProDisc back (the owners of Centinel Spine had sold ProDisc to Synthes in 2003), surgeons and industry observers were hoping that Centinel Spine would reinvigorate the product category.
It is worth noting that Centinel Spine’s owners—the Viscogliosi Brothers—brought disc arthroplasty to the U.S. from Europe, funded the original clinical studies and for all intents and purposes taught the entire industry about motion preserving disc implants.
The initial reaction from physicians was upbeat.
“Centinel Spine’s acquisition of ProDisc is absolutely positive for ProDisc as well as for spinal arthroplasty in general”, said Jack Zigler, M.D., one of the principals at The Texas Back Institute and the first U.S. surgeon to implant ProDisc L.
“The Viscogliosi Brothers were instrumental in recognizing the value of spinal arthroplasty and bringing that technology into the U.S. They have personal experience with several of the pivotal IDE [investigational device exemption] studies for both cervical and lumbar arthroplasty, as well as with the benefits of non-fusion technologies.”
“Their involvement will re-energize the field of spine arthroplasty.”
125,000 Motion Preserving Implants, So Far
In the six months since buying ProDisc, Centinel has almost tripled the size of the company in terms of employees (engineers, scientists, administrators, marketing and regulatory personnel). In addition, management has engaged several key outside vendors (MCRA, MDMA, MMI, etc.) to navigate the regulatory and reimbursement gauntlet in the U.S.
The news that the VB’s were back in the disc arthroplasty space did trigger a spate of new interest if not also increasing podium presentations. Speakers now had audiences who were ready to take a closer look at disc arthroplasty.
Most notably, we now can see the full scope of Centinel’s ProDisc purchase.
By acquiring ProDisc, Centinel brought a legacy of 125,000 motion preserving implants, 25 years of lumbar disc arthroplasty clinical history and more than 15 years of cervical disc arthroplasty clinical history into the firm.
To put that in perspective, the results with 13,000+ ProDisc patients have been reported on in clinical studies. Centinel Spine’s ProDisc is, literally, the most studied disc replacement implant in the world.
Payers take note: It is probably more studied than most fusion implants with 400 published papers and 48 long-term follow-up papers.
According to the data, patients who receive a ProDisc implant have four times LESS risk of re-operation as compared to ACDF (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion) at 7-year follow-up. And for those who keep track of adjacent level disease, it is also four times less likely to trigger that at 7-year follow up.
With over 30 years of clinical experience, West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Centinel Spine is the largest privately held spine company focused on anterior column reconstruction. Not many people remember this, but Centinel encompasses the old Raymedica, Surgicraft and Spine Solutions companies.
And now it has ProDisc.
