Between 1984 and 1988, the SB Charite' disc was implanted on a small scale by the developers, Shellnack and Buettner-Janz in East Berlin. When the SB Charite' III began in 1988, the developers along with the Link corporation (My discs are called Link SB Charite' III's) were able to generate more broad appeal. Zeegers and others began in 88 or 89 and implanted mainstream throught the 90's. When I began my research in 2000, there were 3500 Charite's implanted worldwide and Zeegers had done 700 of them and was far and away the most experienced ADR surgeon in the world. At that time, there were 400 ProDiscs implanted worldwide and Bertagnoli had the lion's share at 100 and was already recognized as a leader in the field.
Many of the European doctors pioneered spine arthroplasty with mainstream use in their practices. If you discover the articles that show 10, 12, 15 year follow-up, the authors David, Mayer and others were there too.
Mark
|