PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - S. Craig Humphreys
AU  - Scott D. Hodges
AU  - J. Alex Sielatycki
AU  - Ahilan Sivaganesan
AU  - Jon E. Block
TI  - Are We Finally Ready for Total Joint Replacement of the Spine? An Extension of Charnley’s Vision
AID  - 10.14444/8538
DP  - 2024 Feb 01
TA  - International Journal of Spine Surgery
PG  - 24--31
VI  - 18
IP  - 1
4099  - http://ijssurgery.com//content/18/1/24.short
4100  - http://ijssurgery.com//content/18/1/24.full
SO  - Int J Spine Surg2024 Feb 01; 18
AB  - Professor Sir John Charnley has been rightfully hailed as a visionary innovator for conceiving, designing, and validating the Operation of the Century—the total hip arthroplasty. His groundbreaking achievement forever changed the orthopedic management of chronically painful and dysfunctional arthritic joints. However, the well-accepted surgical approach of completely removing the diseased joint and replacing it with a durable and anatomically based implant never translated to the treatment of the degenerated spine. Instead, decompression coupled with fusion evolved into the workhorse intervention. In this commentary, the authors explore the reasons why arthrodesis has remained the mainstay over arthroplasty in the field of spine surgery as well as discuss the potential shift in the paradigm when it comes to treating degenerative lumbar disease.