???? Technical focus on the two-layer coating of the ESP discs prostheses

The ESP prostheses are stand-alone prostheses, their primary stability is ensured thanks to spikes on the external surface of prosthetic endplates, their secondary stability is ensured thanks to their surface coating.

The goal of the surface coating of implants is to facilitate osseointegration and to improve their anchoring quality.

The two-layer coating applied on the CP-ESP and LP-ESP disc prostheses consists in a first layer of titanium and a second layer of hydroxyapatite (HA) obtained thanks to plasma spray technology. The titanium layer provides a rough surface thus increasing the contact surface between the implant and the vertebral endplates. Greater is the roughness, greater will be the contact surface and better the implant will hold onto the bone. The HA layer accelerates bone ingrowth onto the implant, its mineral composition is close to the one of the bone. This biomaterial is frequently used in orthopaedics for cementless implants for several decades.

This surface coating was chosen 17 years ago for LP-ESP prostheses because it allows an excellent stability of the implant in the intervertebral space and is also applied on CP-ESP prostheses since the obtention of the CE Mark in 2012. Its composition and its application method remain the same since the first implantations of LP-ESP in 2004.

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