There Has to Be A Better Way

[CG Brady]

I was thinking about getting ADR but after reading the outcomes here I come away thinking they are not much better that fusions. I have looked at many pictures of surgeries with screws plates and ADR and I come away thinking, "How barbaric This is the 21st century for Christ's sake!"

There are some basic problems that the medical engineerds seem to ignore.

1 Allergy to the materials. Of course it would be too intelligent to test the patient first.

2 ADR has been around since the 50's in the US and if you look at today's designs most are not much different that that the old ball and sockets of the early days. The M-6 is an exception.

3. Why metal? Metal sucks. The thermal properties of metal probably are a source of pain in such a nerve rich area. It's sort of like a deep dental filling. Or teeth that are sensitive to temperature change only worse.

4. Let's look and the lowest common denominator. $$$$$$ Let's say there was an implant that was a virtual real disk and when it was installed if acted exactly like a real disk. It flexed, limited rotation and flexion like a real disk and had similar thermal properties and was hypo allergenic. That technology is probably available but it is not being pursued? Why? $$$$$$$?

It's a fact bad medicine if far far far more lucrative than good medicine. Think about it, what diseases have been cured in the last 50 years? Disease management is the think now. Cures? Cures will cost the medical industrial complex trillions.

I know, health care in the US sucks and we think that Europe is better and in many ways it is. It's not that Europe is that good. They have garbage medical care too but it is better garbage than US garbage but it is still garbage.

5. Pain is big money! I was recently prescribed a nasty drug called Skelaxin. Go to ask a patient and read what others have said about this deadly muscle relaxer. Skelaxin cost about 450 bucks for a month's supply.

6. You are not a patient. You ARE a cash vending machine.

7. Fact Check me! Hospitals are just as unethical and drug companies. The hospital infection rate in the US is conservatively 1 in 20. That means nearly 2 MILLION Americans get a hospital acquired infection and nearly 100,000 of them die from it. Add another 10K dollars to the 2 million dollars in extra charges and you will see why Hospital Acquired Infections are so common these days. Years ago HIAs were very rare. Today they are common and lucrative.

8. We are lambs to the slaughter.

[Harrison]

CG, sorry for the very late reply. Hospital acquired infections is something I track very closely for a long list of reasons.

My next film focuses on bacterial biofilms and how they create persistent health conditions, some of which are hard to diagnose. Some patients who have surgery with device implantation may have problems months or years down the road; once again, bacterial biofilms can be the culprit.

I've devoted many hours of research to this topic since 2003, as it affects so many patients with prosthetics. I spent countless hours identifying some of the top biofilm and HAI experts. One example of this focused effort is from a recent interview here. Please see the excerpt and the video link at the bottom. This interview is uniquely appropriate for us patients with devices and it spells out many important issues with biofilms!

So, back to you: I am sorry to say that your facts on infections are low: the fatality numbers are low at least five-fold (as you imply), but many infections result AFTER discharge. As a result, they may not be diagnosed, reported or tracked! If you watch the above video, you'll understand what I mean as you learn about planktonic showers. It's really serious stuff, but it's a very important and obfuscated biology lesson for all of us!

[trulifebrian]

I broke my leg, badly...They fixed my leg, very well. Is my leg back to being "perfect"? Of course not.

I wouldn't know it had EVER been broken by the way it performs for me 98% of the time. When the barometric pressure drops, like when a storm comes, I realise and feel "hey, I had a broken leg".
Do I want to blame someone that they didn't return my leg to the "perfect" state it was before it was broken?....No.
And before my ADR surgery (that I just had last week) did I say to myself "what they do better return my back to how it felt when I was 25"? Of course not.
And did I say to myself, "They haven't perfected any of these devices to show that thay are 100% satisfaction as an original equpiment body part and I'll wait through 250 years till scientific perfection".....?

Pain makes personalities change and deminishes logic. Bad experiences, both healthwise and financial, affect ALL life outlooks and decisions.
I am an engineer in polymers and elastomers and product design, won an award for best achievement in engineering one year and feel I made the "best" decision based on existing technology.
You want a litigation "proof" polymer with elastomeric properties that will biologically "fuze" to "all" blood-types, body chemistry, age and physical gradients and be just as good as a blood suplied, natural anatomical componant.

We....Ain't.....There....Yet

I appluad all individuals, companies, entrepreneurs and concerned groups that have the GUTS to delve into the ever-improving world of bio-mecanical substitutions (especially in this litigious world) to improve the deminished and limited lives of the "fragile" human organism.

Brian
S1-L5 Prodisc