[jss]

Scott,

I clearly understand that you're not trying to tarnish anyone's reputation; but just sharing your experience. That's all that any of us can honestly do.

How I selected a surgeon ... My experience is so different than your's, I don't know that it can be helpful, but ... here goes. First, I went through the process backwards; I selected a device first and foremost, and then selected a surgeon.

I'd had two fusions ten and eight years earlier. I'd since also earned two pre-med degrees and so knew in 2008 when I started having problems again that two more cervical fusions would leave me severely debilitated for life (I'm 47). By 2008 cervical ADR was available, but the ones available in the US would, in my view, be only marginally better than fusion because none of them (including the one that Dr Zigler wanted to implant in me) cushioned axial compression. The Nuvasive NeoDisc did, and I tried to get in on the trial; but because it was a double blind study, I had a 50% chance of waking up with another fusion. I pleaded with Marc Kowalkowski, the director for the NeoDisc trial at TBI, to be assured of an ADR, but to no avail. Since the M6 had a proven track record with thousands of implants (overseas), and since it cushioned axial compression and addressed the major problems with other ADR implants (subsidence, migration, facet joint & adjacent segment disease), and since I was an engineer and felt qualified to make a decision on a device (rightly or not), I decided to have M6 ADRs. Since the M6 was not, and still is not, approved for use in the United States, I accepted that I'd have to go overseas.

With the device selected, only then did I set about looking for a surgeon. Of course I looked into Stenum and Bertagnoli (Zeegers does only Mobi-C). I didn't expect my insurance to pay, so I looked for less expensive avenues with surgeons just as qualified. I went to PlanetHospital.com and Healthbase.com; two companies that hook up patients with international avenues for treatment. To my shock I learned that the M6 was not approved for use in India (where I was fully expecting to go)?! There were only a handful of other options that turned up that use the device I wanted. Only Dr Clavel at the Barcelona Spine Center in Barcelona, Spain met all of my cost/credentials criteria. He wasn't even close to the cheapest, but the cost was two thirds what I'd pay in Germany. He had only about a tenth of the experience of the Germans, but at almost 300 ADRs performed (only 10 at the time with the M6), he had more than any US surgeon. He'd also been involved in ADR R&D, and went to high school, college and medical school in the United States.

When I put all of that into a pot and mixed, and did a cost/risk/outcome analysis, the decision had been rendered academic; so I went to Spain. I've since finished two half-marathons, one full marathon (with a new personal best) and a 100 mile bicycle race.

That's what I did, and how and why I did it. So far, it looks like I made the right decision.

BTW: Since my double ADR I have seen a few patients come on this site that have had highly successful surgical outcomes in England. Had the English options presented themselves during my research, I would certainly have looked into them as well.

Good luck, Jeff