FDA approved disc for three levels (Lumbar)
 

Hello everyone! Been 'living' with pain for the better part of seven years. My doctors locally (I live in the Caribbean) is pushing for fusion, however, I am looking for an alternative.
Does anyone know if the FDA had approved three levels disc replacement in the US yet? My insurance company may consider 100% coverage once it is being offered in the US. I already have approval/quotations from Germany, Barcelona and Zurich and they all indicated I need two levels cervical and three lumbar but I am not sure if they (insurers) will cover anything outside of the US.
Also, can both cervical and lumbar be done under one anaesthesia in the US (like they do in Europe)? Any information on this will be helpful. Thanks so much in advance!

I apologize; I don't have answers to offer you but I would suggest that a two level cervical plus a three level lumbar ADR would be an enormous surgery to recover from if it was done all at once. Unless your general health was better than excellent, I would strongly suspect that you'd be asked to do that much work in two separate surgeries.

Thanks much! I was a little surprised when the other Europian doctors said they would do both in the same surgery myself, however, I have come to learn that it is something they do fairly regularly. As it is, I have no issues either way..I'm just awaiting feedback from my insurers on whether they will cover the surgery cost or not. As far as my own research shows, the FDA still hasn't approved any three levels lumbar prosthetics. Hope someone may know more about it on this forum. Thanks tho! :)

Hi Nadia,

As far as I've read, dual-level artificial lumbar disc replacement has not been approved by the FDA yet. I assume that because of this, a triple would probably be out of the question for at least another few years.

Best regards,