Total disc replacement (TDR)

Total Disc Replacement (TDR) is a surgical method to treat the symptoms caused by degenerated discs and to maximally preserve the mobility of the spine. The method was developed by Karin Butner-Yantz in the early 1980s and was introduced to the Wooridul hospital in 1999. Due to the development of surgical instruments and surgical techniques, the patients?degree of satisfaction is very high.

Surgical Techniques
As a minimally invasive transfusionless surgery, it enables less bleeding and injury to the muscle since the surgery approaches the lesion by making a 4~5 cm long incision in the abdomen. The diseased disc is quickly and safely removed by using an automated nucleotome to insert an artificial disc.
The surgery does not require blood transfusion, and the surgery is finished by confirming the location of the inserted artificial disc.

1. Inserting an artificial disc

2. an artificial disc

Advantages
Since TDR maintains the mobility of joints, the movement of the spine is more flexible. Patients who receive the surgery can walk the day after. Since the surgery does not cut lumbar vertebrates and does not open the waist muscles, patients do not have pain and quicker rehabilitation is possible due to less hospitalization. They also return to their normal and social lives much faster. It also reduced the chances of spinal surgery by minimizing the degenerative changes in peripheral vertebrates in the surgery area.

The X-ray results of a patient who received TDR surgery on September 12, 2002 between Lumbar spine No. 3 and 4. The patient returned to normal work within one week of the surgery.

Success Rate
The success rate of TDR surgery reaches up to 95%, and most patients?hospitalization period is from three to seven days.

Complication and sequelae
Lower back pain and numbness in the legs can be immediately improved after the surgery, but some patients require a certain period of recovery time. The possibility of bleeding is less than 0.1%. Inflammation and infection can be found in less than 0.2% of patients. However, retrograde ejaculation can be found in 2% of males when the artificial disc insertion is made between Lumbar spine No. 5 and Sacral spine No. 1.

Applicable Subjects
The surgery is recommended for patients who have experienced lumbar pain for more than two years due to degenerative disc diseases, internal disc disruption, disc herniation accompanied with spine instability due to recurrent disc diseases, degenerative disc instability after bone fusion, and for patients who require spinal reconstruction from spinal cord stenosis. It is also applicable for patients with spine deformities without having damage in joints after spinal cord stenosis surgery.

1. Before

2. After