Allogeneic Morphogenetic Protein Helps With Cervical Fusion

Researchers have concluded that allogeneic morphogenetic protein may be a safe substitute for recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP) in cervical spine fusion procedures. However, they noted a lack of controls and absence of an evaluation of the patients’ clinical results were among the shortcomings of their investigation.

“Despite these limitations, results in this report demonstrate that allogeneic morphogenetic protein may be a viable alternative to rhBMP-2 with encouraging clinical results for use in the cervical spine. Multicenter randomized controlled studies will be necessary to confirm the clinical efficacy and results of this analysis,” Justin Field, M.D., and colleagues wrote in the study.

They conducted a retrospective analysis at three clinical sites of 140 consecutive patients who underwent cervical spine fusion from C3-T3. The patients only received an allogeneic morphogenetic protein implant (OsteoAMP; Advanced Biologics, Carlsbad, Calif.) and when available, morsellized local autograft was combined with it.

About 31 percent of patients had evidence of fusion at three months, 80 percent of patients had evidence of fusion at six months, and at 12 months 98 percent of patients had evidence of fusion, Field and colleagues noted. By the 18-month follow-up investigators saw evidence of fusion on radiographs or computed tomography in all the patients.

The new allogeneic morphogenetic protein implant made available to the researchers the naturally occurring growth factors and BMPs within bone marrow, Field and colleagues wrote, and that inspired them to do this work. They noted that a study of transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion that used a bone-marrow based morphogenetic protein produced a 98 percent fusion rate at 18 months follow-up.

“This analysis showed similar fusion results when used in cervical spine surgery supporting the benefits of having an array of growth factors,” Field and colleagues wrote. “In addition, fusion rates of 97.6 percent at 12 months and 100 percent at 18 months when allogeneic morphogenetic protein was used exceeds fusion rates reported in literature.”