Mark Hornyak, MD

This is a 39 year-old female who presents with neck and shoulder pain radiating into her arms. She has painful tingling in her hands and difficulty with fine motor tasks, reports “dropping things”. She frequently feels off balance when walking. Her exam reveals brisk deep-tendon reflexes and weakness of her hands.

• All
• Pre-Op
• Intra-op
• Post-op

Preoperative cervical spine x-rays with extension (bending back, left) and flexion (bending forward, right) views of the cervical spine. Note the relatively focal degenerative changes at C5/6 (arrows) with lack of movement.

Preoperative MRI of the c-spine showing C5/6 disc degeneration and displacement with spinal cord compression.

Intraoperative photograph taken through the surgical microscope demonstrating the artificial disc in place between the C5 (left) and C6 (right) vertebral bodies.

Diagram illustrating the placement of the Mobi-C arthroplasty device.

Postoperative c-spine x-rays. Compare with Figure 1. Artificial disc is now in place between C5 and C6 and there is now motion in flexion and extension (bending the neck forward and back).

Diagram illustrating the intended motion of the artificial disc with extension and extension (top) and lateral bending (bottom).

Video demonstrating differences between cervical arthroplasty and fusion.