ADR,
Before making the decision to go overseas, there are several good surgeons to consider in the U.S. The first one that comes to mind is Dr. Jack Zigler of the Texas Back Institute (TBI) in Plano, TX. The reason I am suggesting TBI is that they are known for helping the patient through the insurance process. Furthermore, they do excellent work. There are some very good ADR's like the ProDisc used in the U.S. There are many other U.S. surgeons who perform ADR. I suggest you spend some time researching these boards.
In terms of going overseas, the M6 may be one of the best makes out there. You need to get multiple opinions from surgeons in Europe as well as the U.S. Certain conditions prevent people from being a candidate for the M6 and in some cases ADR altogether. By the way, when you mentioned that you sent your MRI to be reviewed by Clavel/Ritter-Lang, I hope you sent your MRI to Clavel separately. If you sent them to Ritter-Lang (probably through Sue Hart) on the
Artificial Disc Replacement Surgery website, Clavel will never see those films. If you want Dr Clavel to see your films, you should check out this site:
Barcelona Spine Center | Barcelona Spine Center and contact his team through there. Dr. Ritter-Lang may have may have been a great surgeon at one time. However, he has a very bad reputation on these boards. Patients feel like they are in an assembly-line being treated by him and his team. He typically does 6 to 7 surgeries a day. Most other surgeons do 2 to 3 in a day. Don't get me wrong, most patients improve with Ritter-Lang. Bad discs are removed and replaced by good ones. However, placing the discs requires a certain amount of precision, which can be compromised if one rushes through the process. Other surgeons in Europe to consider are Dr. Bierstedt in Germany
German Spine Specialists – M6 ADR Artificial Disk Replacement - Stop spine pain now, Lumbar Cervical Spine Surgery and Mr. Dare in Southampton, UK. From reading these boards, Dr Clavel seems to be fantastic. Not as many people use Dr. Bierstedt, but everyone who has used him only seems to have good things to say about him. The same holds true for Mr. Dare.
One last issue regarding insurance. Most people who go to Europe are in severe pain and seem to have no other alternative than to travel there. There are a few cases where people get lucky and get reimbursed by insurance. Blue Cross/Blue Shield has some sort of international plan and those that have policies with out-of-network benefits sometimes get reimbursed. However,
nobody I know of on these boards has gone overseas with pre-approval from their carrier. You need to go over there with the expectation that you won't get anything from your insurance. If you do, then you can consider yourself lucky. The positive thing is that you can take most of your medical and travel costs as a deduction on your tax return. The downside is that if something goes wrong there is no accountability like there is in the U.S. Furthermore, finding a U.S. doctor to do follow-up on surgery done overseas is very difficult.
In summary, I recommend you try and find some U.S. surgeons first. Then if you determine that you need to go overseas, I suggest you consider Dr. Clavel through his own website that I gave you or the other surgeons I mentioned. Finally, stay away from Dr. Ritter-Lang at all costs!! Compare his recommendation of treatment to others, but don't use him.
Good luck!!
Gene