NuVasive has published its study online in the Journal of Spine & Neurosurgery, which demonstrated that Cohere Porous PEEK promotes improved early outcomes over structural allograft and smooth PEEK in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) procedures.

The California-based medical device company has involved 167 patients with degenerative cervical disc disease underwent ACDF in the study, to use Cohere Porous PEEK, structural allograft or smooth PEEK in the interbody space.

NuVasive said that the patients treated with Cohere showed significant clinical improvements compared to preoperative scores and better outcomes than alternative treatments within initial six weeks and persistent improvements compared to the other treatments through 12-months post-op.

The study results cited patients treated with Cohere Porous PEEK interbody fusion devices showed clear improvements in neck disability index (NDI) scores and pain by six-weeks post-op, while patients treated with smooth PEEK showed significant improvements starting at three-months post-op.

In addition, the study showed that structural allograft patients started to improve over baseline by six weeks, Porous PEEK patients showed statistically significant improvements over baseline by two weeks and considerably better improvements than allograft and smooth PEEK patients by six-weeks post-op.

NuVasive medical affairs senior director Kyle Malone said: “This is the first comparative study between NuVasive’s Cohere Porous PEEK, smooth PEEK and allograft interbody spacers in ACDF, and it was found that patients treated with a Porous PEEK implant experienced incrementally improved early clinical improvements, which were sustained through the course of the study.

“Studies like this both corroborate the preclinical data as well as reaffirm NuVasive’s commitment to clinical research and the necessity of having this as part of the product development process so we continually offer surgeons the best, most clinically proven technologies for their patients.”

The company claims that the Cohere Porous PEEK offers a unique three-dimensional porous architecture designed to elicit and encourage bone in-growth and stabilization without compromising implant strength or radiolucency.