Thanks for the well wishes
 

Well, we met with Dr. Hofstetter at UW on Friday. My wife and I both liked him and liked his ideas for treatment. He is opting for a more conservative approach than we had gotten before. He does not want to remove either C5 or C6. His idea is to remove both M6 ADR and to clean up the damaged vertebra, remove all the bone spurs (which there are a lot of), put screws and an anterior plate in C4, C5 and C6. He believes there is enough viable bone in each of the vertebra to position screws to hold them in place. He will also put in something similar to stem-cells and bone-growth material to help the bones grow back and to fuse together, (made sense when he explained it, but I didn't follow all of it well enough to properly relay it here). We will give it a couple months to grow together and see how it is doing. If he is not happy with the bone growth, then we will have to have a posterior cage done in that area, (more painful and longer recovery). So that's the plan for now. Surgery set for the 23rd. Prayers for my wife to get over her bronchitis before that so we can get this done then!

I will try to get some pics of the broken discs posted. Not sure if that is within my computer skill set :laugh: but will try. Thank you all again for your well wishes and prayers.

Tim,

What a terrible story. Thanks for posting it.

You are the second poster we've seen here that has had a failure of an M6-C proper. The other failure sounded the same as yours; the annulus had migrated out of the implant. Per his account, Spinal Kinetics claims to have fixed that problem. I got my pair of M6-C's two years after you got yours. I am left to wonder if I received the one with the problem, or the one with that problem fixed.

Osteolysis is not uncommon with some form of heavy metal poisoning; which is why MOM (metal on metal) hip implants have fallen out of favor. Since the annulus migrated out of at least one of your implants, you probably ended up with the M6's metal end plates articulating against each other. I don't know if osteolysis resolves when the metal source is removed. Since your new doctor wants to anchor screws in those thinned bones, it sounds like he believes it should.

Wishing you the very best of luck on the 23'rd. Please update us when you're able. (looking forward to your images of the failed M6's if you can get them up)

Good luck!

oh goodness!
 

This is so horrifying! Like JSS; I too have MC-6 at two levels. Mine are under three level fusion which may make the stress on these devices even greater. So much for due diligence. I am due for my three month post op x-rays soon. My daughter in law worked for a PA that did a research paper on the M6-c and was going to do my x-rays for me but now he has left that hospital. Now I am on my own...I had no pain for two straight week and this weeks it's back.

the 2nd?
 

Hi JSS, Who was the 1st? Do you recall the outcome of that one?

Surgery this Thursday - July 23
 

Here's what we have decided to proceed with: the doctors chart notes -
We are hoping for the best possible outcome.

I had a long discussion with the patient and his wife regarding surgical options. I propose to remove the artificial disks. I am going to remove the anterior osteophytes at from C4 to C6.
Reconstruct the bony defects using allograft spaces. I am also going to use vivigen allograft with immature osteoblasts to help with the fusion and reconstructing the bone mass. If the anterior construct appears to be solid I think there is an 80% chance to avoid posterior fusion. In case the anterior graft is not solid the might proceed with an immediate posterior fusion procedure. I told the patient and his wife that complications this procedure include infections, CSF leaks, permanent or transient neurological deficits. There is also a risk dysphagia and hoarseness. There also is a risk of nonunion. I told the patient at this approximately 20%. If the patient's signs of nonunions at the 3 months follow-up I would then proceed with a posterior fusion construct. Also told the patient is a chance of plate fracture screw pullout. Is also risk associated with anesthesia such as stroke death and blindness.

The patient and his wife agree, asked appropriate questions and were willing to proceed.

All I recall was that the guy had a fusion and was at that time Ok. A poster on this site referenced the thread on a German forum. I've tried to find it again since and haven't.

firefighter, good luck Thursday!

Firefighter ~ I'm so sorry you have to go through this again. I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers and wishing you the very best possible outcome from your surgery! Let us know how you are doing.

The numerous bone spurs sounds as if no bone wax was applied on the posterior rim which for the cervical is a no no. Unless R-L did apply it and they formed anyway?

What specifically did Spinal Kinetics do to their device in the intervening 2 year period to strengthen them from their first gen iterations? Anyone know? Weird that metal would crack off. That sounds awful. I'm glad you're getting this revised!

Try to get the doctor to keep the M6Cs once removed for observational purposes.

I have an understanding that bone wax can only be applied on the anterior side of vertebra at least in cervical spine.