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Originally Posted by annapurna
Bad news, you've pretty much caught most of the concerns. One additional one that has come out over time is that the Prodisc can permit hypermobility and lead to facet damage.
Good news, to some extent the vertebral fracture potential can be reduced by confirming bone density ahead of time and working with a skilled surgeon. Doesn't make that concern go away but it does reduce it. The hypermobility concern can also be partially addressed with strength training (once you're recovered to the point where that's safe). Laura's had two Prodisc-C's and uses strength training and prolotherapy to address the hypermobility.
Overall, it's pretty difficult to evaluate one ADR against another. Partially because most of what we accept as their attributes is actually marketing hype and partially because there's been little head-to-head testing or evaluation. As you're in academia, you'll understand that studies are generally only done when the study author is likely to be funded to do it. My, frequently expressed, opinion is that the most significant factor leading to ADR success is the surgeon's skill, not the ADR. If you feel like you're being railroaded, especially in that you can't speak with the surgeon, that's probably a far better indication that you need to delay and get your worries addressed
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Thanks for your input! Yes, that's exactly what I found, in that there's almost no literature comparing the different devices together in vivo, and I assumed that was probably likely due to funding issues. It also makes sense in that at this point, with insurance companies in the US still fighting against ADR, that the research efforts are mainly trying to prove that ADR is equal to or superior to ACDF (and cheaper--found some studies arguing that it's cheaper in the long run). Meanwhile, I'm like I don't care what's cheaper, I have to live with this thing in my neck!
The Prodisc is concerning me still, especially with the whole two-level issue. The communication problem, as you mentioned, is also disconcerting. I actually really liked my surgeon, and he has a good reputation, but it just seems like we have so few surgeons in this town that they're all extremely busy and hard to get ahold of.
I may post another question about this, but I was also wondering about clicking issues--I've read a few posts here and other places about the Mobi-C making very loud clicking noises, and I'm wondering how common that is. I've seen fewer complaints about that with the Prodisc.