ADRSupport Community - Interesting Article

I usually put articles in the library -- but this one was so full of things I wanted to comment on or question! E.g., the facts/figures, who paid for soldier's operation, putting him out in the field when he is still healing, ADR is for "young" people. Good gosh!?
_________________________________________________

Soldier receives first implant of artificial spinal disc in West Michigan
Friday, March 10, 2006
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press

GRANDVILLE -- He was on patrol, running on rocky terrain north of Baghdad in March 2005 when he twisted his ankle and felt shooting pain in his leg.

Army Spc. Aaron DeYoung didn't know it then, but he was on his way to making West Michigan medical history.

"I felt a jolt of pain go down my right leg," recalled DeYoung, 23, recuperating at his Grandville home following the implant of an artificial spinal disc at Saint Mary's Health Care.

It is the first surgery of its kind at a local hospital -- one that DeYoung hopes gives him the best chance for a full recovery.

"I would like to be able to stay in the Army. I wouldn't mind going back to Iraq. But right now, my life is pretty much on hold."

DeYoung had surgery Feb. 28, a 2 1/2-hour operation in which neurosurgeon Steve Klafeta implanted the disc through a small opening in DeYoung's abdomen.

Like many patients with his medical profile, DeYoung could have opted for a spinal fusion. Until the artificial disc was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004, fusion was the standard choice for many patients with lower back pain and deteriorated discs.

But fusion -- in which two or more vertebrae are joined together -- has its limitations. It can restrict mobility. And it puts additional pressure on the adjacent discs, which can lead to further back problems.

Klafeta, 33, said the artificial disc should not be regarded as a panacea.

It is not suitable for older patients. It also does not come cheap: The polyethylene and alloy device costs about $12,000 and hospital expenses can run to $30,000. And it's not known how long the hardware will hold up.

But it does promise a new avenue of treatment for some of the 150,000 patients who undergo lower-back spinal fusion each year.

"It is really for a limited population. It's for young people who have chronic back pain," Klafeta said.

According to Bruce Rossman, spokesman for Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus, surgeons there have been trained in artificial disc implantation for about a year. But Rossman said they have not yet found a suitable candidate.

Klafeta said the failure rate for the artificial disc is about 2 percent to 3 percent for the artificial disc, compared to 2 percent to 5 percent for fusion.

Klafeta called DeYoung a "perfect" candidate for the artificial disc.

Given his age and activity level, DeYoung opted for the artificial disc.

He said he first injured his back in the fall of 2003, when he stumbled on a hole in the track while doing a two-mile training run in Lansing. The 2001 Grandville High School graduate joined the Army Reserves in February 2003.

"I got a shooting pain in my back. I didn't know what it was," he recalled.

The pain radiated from his lower back down the back of his legs, caused by a rupture in his fifth lumbar disc -- the same disc Klafeta eventually would replace. In May 2004, DeYoung had the protruding disc removed. By November 2004, he was in Iraq.

"They deployed me while I was still healing," he said.

DeYoung suspects his back condition was aggravated by the heavy body armor he wore, plus the 15-pound M249 machine gun he lugged around.

After living with chronic pain in Iraq for four months, DeYoung finally was sent back to the states, with stays at Fort Hood, Texas, and Camp Atterbury in Indiana. He was sent to Michigan on convalescent leave in October.

A little more than a week after surgery, DeYoung said he is "feeling great" compared to the constant pain he endured.

As for his future with the Army and beyond, "That's to be determined."