My disc between L4/5 is basically gone. The spondy "slip" has affected my hip, caused numbness and tingling in my legs and foot. I have had a orthopedic spine surgeon tell me here in US that he doesn't know for sure if he can get everything aligned properly. Dr. Bierstedt says the only way to get everything back to where it should be is to go in from the front, clean out disc, pull L5 back into alignment, put in "cage" where old dics was, then flip you over and put the screws in from the back. You can't get long enough screws in from front alone and you can't get the L5 vertibrae pulled back where it should be from back alone. He says it's really important in my case that the screws be long enough to completely immobilize. (He says they've seen a lot of failed fusions because of too short of screws.) None of my other discs have degenerated so they would feel fairly confident that a 1 level fusion should fix me up seeing as it is a birth defect that has caused the degeneration between L4/5. They feel like the post surgery care and PT also plays a big part in your total recovery. Sounds like here in US I wouldn't get PT til 6 wks. out. I've fought this for 6 yrs now and am about done with living with the pain and not having any energy left after work for my wife and kids. I'm in construction and love it and want to get back to enjoying my job and recreation.
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Spondylolisthesis L4/5
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