View Single Post
  #12  
Old 09-02-2019, 01:29 AM
funcrew funcrew is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 43
Default

Jack,

[EDIT: Upon reading the 2012 follow up study on the ESP that you linked, it looks like they flexed the device 40 million times per direction under 30 to 300 pounds of force, with little to no performance degradation on the elastic core and no failures. That works out to about 3,000 flex cycles per day for my foreseeable remaining lifetime. It still makes me nervous, but I'm going to stick with the ESP.]

What about the non-replaceable cores on the ESP device? You're betting that the flexible core can withstand (in my case) 40 years of flex cycles without failing. If it does fail, then I would need someone to drill out the plates and start over with new ADR or fusion. That seems like a very long service life for a flexible part. Surgery is in 2 days. I meet with Dr. Desai today, will ask whether he would consider a pro disc. Dr. Bertagnoli's salesman Tim Vicknair does not like the ESP for this reason, but he's not an unbiased source.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JackBauer View Post
So many reasons.


6 degrees of movement vs 3 degrees of freedom.
Endplate material
Keel type design (on the Prodisc)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj-j2YjFjqI
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3567327/


This is just my personal opinion. The Prodisc has been on the market longer than the LP-ESP but the LP-ESP was first implanted (first gen device) in 2004, so there is a decent amount of history with the device.


There are a lot of people very happy with their Prodisc. Just who knows what their adjacent vertebrae is going to look like 15-20 years after implantation. It is a gamble either way, I'm just more willing personally to gamble with the LP-ESP. And I've researched this quite a bit.
__________________
Age 56
Severe neck and back pain, 10 years+ on opiate pain meds every 4 hours, numbness and weakness in both arms and legs.
Evaluated by Dr Bertagnoli for ProDisc at L3L4, L4L5, L5S1, C5C6 and C6C7

Sept 4th, 2019: Completed 3 level CP-ESP at C4 thru C7 with Dr. Biren Desai in Cologne, Germany

Scheduled for March 11, 2020: L3 thru S1 LP-ESP with Dr Clavel in Barcelona
Reply With Quote