Introduction:

We conducted a retrospective study in patients with disc herniation and compared the results obtained in individuals treated with the U device N6 with those acquired in patients treated without any device. The U device is a titanium alloy implant that is placed between the spinous processes.

Material and methods:

In a cohort of 50 patients with degenerative lumbar disc, 25 underwent surgical treatment in which the U device was placed and 25 control individuals were treated with discectomy alone. Patients underwent serial follow-up evaluations, and radiographic assessment was used to determine the outcome. Up to two years of follow-up data were obtained in all patients (2013-2014).

Results:

Statistically significant improvement was seen in patients treated with the coflex device in the management of lumbar disc degeneration to avoid lumbar instability in the future (p < 0.01). It allowed its placement in 90% of the patients.

Conclusions:

Our study shows that the coflex device was more effective than the discectomy group in the management of lumbar instability. Ninety percent of the cases of the N6 group present the device at L5 S1 versus 60% of the historical group with other devices (2004-2011).