ADR Doctor Research
 

I have received positive advice on ADR for L4-L5 and L5-S1 from both Dr. Clavel and Dr. Ritter-Lang. I had a chance to speak with Dr. Clavel over the phone and felt good about him as a doctor. I never spoke to Ritter-Lang as I found a lot of negative things about him through this site and others. That said, I would like to proceed with Dr. Clavel but (as I am sure many of you have experienced) everyone has an opinion about going abroad to have this surgery. Everyone thinks I am absolutely nuts for doing this in Spain. That said, has anyone done an independent review of Clavel and/or the hospital he performs surgery. I feel the need to do more investigative work (outside of this site) just to make myself feel comfortable about the provider and facility. Does anyone know of a company that can help with this type of background investigation?

Mike,

One of the downsides of going overseas is the inability to do background investigations of such facilities. For whatever it's worth, most doctors in the U.S. think that people who go abroad for ADR are crazy. However, many of those that have done so are living pain-free lives when U.S. doctors told them that not much can be done here. Many of these patients were told that they have to accept living with the pain, accept living a sedentary life, and in some cases, expect to spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair. One individual to contact on this site is Lillyth. She recently had six levels of ADR done by Dr. Clavel!!

In your case there is one thing you might consider, especially since you are located in Texas. One of the best known ADR surgeons in the U.S. is Dr. Jack Zigler of the Texas Back Institute in Plano. Furthermore, my understanding is that they assist you in getting your insurance to cover the procedure. The FDA recently gave the go ahead for doing two levels of ADR. Therefore, it's possible that you might be able to get it done at TBI with your insurance covering it. The only downside is that they cannot use the M6 disc (not FDA approved, but known to most closely mimic the real thing. It's produced in Sunnyvale, CA but due to politics does not have FDA approval. It's been used overseas for over a decade with excellent results).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!!
Gene

Mike,

I did find somewhere a rating on the hospital, possibly world health organization. It's been awhile, but the hospital had good marks. Also, the Quirón Hispital is on the BCBS Worldwide Blue approved list...
And I might add that the hospital was one of the cleanest I have ever been in, the care was stellar, the staff was great and Dr. Clavel and team were awesome. In fact, I dread the thoughts of ever needing care in the states again!!!:jump:
And, I am amazed at how fabulous I feel.... I never thought I would be pain free, but I am!!

I had a three level ADR with Dr. Bierstedt in Germany. I was very impressed with the entire experience. Dr. Bierstedt is a very down to earth kind of guy. The hospital in Hattegen is very good, they seem to have a lot of experience in ADR surgery as they can almost anticipate what I was going to go through and were prepared to deal with it. The post op hospital at Medicos was really good with all the therapies they did on me. I can say that I would recommend them, and they use the M6.

Also, there is a process called Osseointegration whereby the implant bonds with the living bone. From what I can tell the titanium used in the M6 is very good for that. However I will say that I haven't researched the properties of the other artificial discs out there. There's a good video on YouTube that shows the procedure of how the M6 is implanted.