Once again, I apologize for taking for ever to get back with everyone.
I have seen two Doctors since my last post and contacted another via email.
The first Doctor that I saw was one of Dr. Marnay’s protégé’s here in Montpellier. This dude seemed way too young for me and only performed about 300 procedures. I took the appointment just to get an opinion. This clinic only works with the Pro-Disc which obviously was a non-starter for me. The young Doc said that he thinks I should only work on my L4L5 disc and leave all other discs alone.
I have confirmed so far from three different top notch doctors that pain is being generated from my L4L5 and my L5S1 so I know this clinic/doc was mediocre.
The next Dr. I spoke with I was really impressed with. His name is Dr. Patrick Tropiano and works at a public hospital in Marseille, France called Hopital de La Timone. I had to drive two hours east of Montpellier to see him. The reason I wanted to see him is because I learned that he uses the LP-ESP disc that I am interested in. It turned out that he is a professor as well and teaches other surgeons in Europe and the U.S. how to perform surgeries. He has performed over 1500 operations and uses all of the latest technologies. He went above and beyond to help me get more images CT Scan, EOS imaging, and scanner. I have never seen scanner or EOS imaging in the U.S.. The only bummer for me is that he believes, like Dr. Rischke from Zurich, that my L5S1 disc is problematic as well and causing me pain. Tropiano believes that it would be better for me to have a hybrid operation placing a new disc at L4L5 and fusion at L5S1. I told him that I really wanted to avoid fusion but he said that my vertebrae is not flat at L5S1 and disc placement there may not be a good idea.
I immediately contacted Rischke to get his thoughts and below is exactly what he said:
“I don't share this view, because I never had a problem preparing the end plates of the vertebrae with a burr or diamond cutter to fit the implant save and stabile
I never observed a displacement of the LP -ESP.”
I have to admit, Rischke feels very ballsy and aggressive to me, yet confident. I even alluded to this at our meeting and he basically said that his solution is to try to fix the problem so that I won’t ever have to mess with surgery again. But at the same time, it seems like you shouldn’t do anything that may not be necessary, like placing dynamic rods at L3L4. Although my L3L4 is showing the beginning signs of disc problems, it doesn’t mean for certain it will be a problem. Man, tough decisions!! I wish he wasn’t so expensive too.
Lastly, I contact Dr. Biren Desai. He has written me back and said that we should do a double disc replacement. He didn’t say at what level but I am assuming at L4-S1. This is all the information that I have from him so far as he will be re-contacting me this week to talk about details.
Dr. Lazennec from Paris is another Dr that I would like to speak to but I am becoming very impatient. My appointment with him is set for Dec 13th. I am going to send him an email to see if there is any way I can get a consultation from him sooner but I am doubtful. Lazennec is the Doctor that was lead on many of the trial studies for the LP-ESP.
Bon courage a tout le monde!!
