CERVICAL DISC REPLACEMENTS in “impact” athletes? | Guest: Dr. Armen Khachatryan, MD

In this episode of TheAthleteSpine, we are joined by a pioneer in motion preservation and disc replacements in the cervical spine, Dr. Armen Khachatryan, MD. He is the Founder and Director of The Disc Replacement Center in West Jordan, Utah as well as the Co-Founder of Masters Spine Institute in Park City, Utah. Cervical Disc Herniations are common in this population. A herniated disc bulge can press up against a nerve(s) that travel down the arms, causing pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness. Unfortunately, there are some athletes in which non-surgical treatments cannot treat their neck/arm pain from a CERVICAL DISC HERNIATION. There are several factors that drive “which surgery” to recommend… For years, the gold standard anterior surgery was a FUSION! (especially in higher impact athletes) But for so many other areas in the body, we focus on motion preservation with “replacements,” (rather than a fusion) Are the principles different in the spine? Yes — the most obvious being that we need to protect the spinal cord and nerves from ongoing and future damage. But, we will dive more into this topic in a near-future post. There are certainly clear indications for both in both ends of the spectrum! So, will we start seeing more disc replacements performed as the evidence grows? Recently, there have been more higher profile athletes that have undergone cervical disc replacements... (on top of the long history of active military members) Dr. K dives in to the world of motion preservation and shares with us his passion for motion preservation in the cervical spine, especially in the athlete population. He discusses the biomechanics and the growing body of literature to support the efficacy of cervical disc replacements over time. Motion preservation is critical in almost all other mobile ares of our bodies, so can we apply these principles to the crevical spine? There are many important details regarding the specific design of some of these implants --- and we spend some time discussing the important elements of these unique designs and how they should be able to withstand the forces of impact over time! Enjoy this episode as Dr. K makes the case for cervical disc replacements in the athlete population! In the spirit of providing the full set of opinions — Dr. Robert Watkins IV, MD will join us next week to discuss why there is still a strong consideration for a fusion procedure in this athletic population! #spineinjury #spine #discreplacement #athletes #spinesurgery #cervicalspine #neckinjury