Hope Slips for Disc Implants

A year ago, Lynette Amodt's back hurt so badly that she sold her Utah home to pay for treatment overseas.

Amodt, a 45-year-old former nurse, had injured her back in 2000 while lifting a dying patient on the job. She and her husband, Carl, a chiropractor, originally sought nonsurgical treatments such as physical therapy and prescription drugs for her condition. They finally decided to try artificial discs, which have a long history in Germany and could become more common here as big medical device makers -- spying a growing market opportunity -- aggressively seek regulatory clearance to sell more of the disc-replacement implants in the U.S.

Dr. Amodt says that his wife got a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quote) Charite disc in her lower back and two Medtronic (MDT Quote) discs elsewhere in her spine. But far from curing her condition, he says, the discs have left her feeling much worse than she ever did before. ...