New ISO standard for spinal disc implants

29 January 2008 International Organization for Standardization press release

A new ISO standard for spinal disc implants will help reduce suffering of back pain patients. The new standard will help ensure that spinal disc prostheses meet requirements for wear resistance, particularly important as once implanted these will need to absorb the impact from the body’s daily activities for years to come.

Medical surgeryISO 18192-1:2008, Implants for surgery – wear of total intervertebral spinal disc prostheses, Part 1:
Loading and displacement parameters for wear testing and corresponding environmental conditions for test provides requirements for comparing the wear performance of different spinal disc prostheses.

The primary users of this ISO standard will be medical device manufacturers and laboratories in public and private sectors, providing biomechanical testing services for medical devices. The estimated worldwide market size for artificial disc prostheses will exceed USD 1 billion by the year 2010.

Read more at http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1109