The Secure-C cervical artificial disc (Globus Medical) is now covered by Anthem, one of the largest health benefits companies in the United States with close to 40 million medical members and over 73 million lives covered.
Secure-C is designed for reconstruction and motion preservation at the operated disc level, unlike traditional motion-eliminating fusion surgery. The device was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012.
A long term, seven-year clinical trial follow-up study published in the International Journal of Spine Surgery indicated that the Secure-C cervical artificial disc is as safe and effective as anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), the current standard of care for cervical disc disease. The study also demonstrated that that Secure-C is statistically superior to ACDF in terms of overall success and patient satisfaction.
At seven-year post-operative follow-up, patients treated with Secure-C exhibited the following results compared to patients treated with ACDF:
- Statistically superior composite protocol-specified overall success results (86.3% vs. 70.0%)
- Statistically superior composite FDA-defined overall success results (79.2% vs. 63.6%)
- Greater percentage of patients with at least 25% improvement in Neck Disability Index, a measure of pain and function (90.4% vs. 86.0%)
- Lower rate of subsequent surgery at the original treated level (4.2% vs. 15.3%)
- Lower rate of adjacent level surgery (4.2% vs. 16.0%)
“The long term clinical results validate that Secure-C creates a significant improvement in patients’ lives over the long term, an important factor in expanding payer coverage,” said Globus Medical’s president, Anthony Williams. “With the addition of Anthem, Secure-C is now covered by all major third party payers in every state and strengthens our position for growth in the cervical artificial disc market.”
