An artificial facet replacement is a joint prosthesis intended to replace the natural facets by restoring normal (or near-normal) motion while providing stabilization of spinal segments. It is typically used as an adjunct to laminectomy, laminotomy, neural decompression and facetectomy, in lieu of fusion, for treatment of instabilities or deformities of the lumbar spine including:
- Degenerative disease of the facets;
- Degenerative disease of the facets with instability;
- Grade 1 degenerative spondylolisthesis with objective evidence of neurologic impairment;
- Central or lateral spinal stenosis.
Facet replacements are a relatively new technology. Artificial facet replacements are currently being investigated in clinical trials in the U.S.
Famous quotes containing the words artificial, facet and/or replacement:
“Description is revelation. It is not
The thing described, nor false facsimile.
It is an artificial thing that exists,
In its own seeming, plainly visible,
Yet not too closely the double of our lives,
Intenser than any actual life could be....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)