Vertebral body replacement

Vertebral body replacement (VBR) using CFR PEEK cages represents a legitimate surgical strategy that opens a variety of improvements-especially in patients in need of postoperative radiotherapy of the spine and MRI-based follow-up examinations ¹⁾.

Design variations of expandable cages for vertebral body replacement do not show any significant effect on the biomechanical results. There was no significant difference found, between the biomechanical properties of expandable and non-expandable cages. After corporectomy, isolated implantation of expandable cages plus anterior plating was not able to restore normal stability of the motion segment. As a consequence, isolated anterior stabilization using cages plus LCDCP should not be used for vertebral body replacement in the thoraco-lumbar spine ²⁾.