[David]

Not yet. To be honest, it has not been suggested, nor even considered at this point.

My previous ortho immediately suggested fusion (I was pushing for surgery), mainly because he wasn't familiar with ADR yet (although he did admit that, in his opinion, I was a perfect candidate for ADR).

My followup appointment with my neurosurgeon is 14-JUL, at which point in time I will see what his new suggestion is (his original suggestion was 1 level ADR @L4-L5, provided a 2nd discogram / CT scan confirmed the 1st discogram, which it didn't)

I am also in the process of getting a second and third opinion from Drs. Z and B.

Interesting:

"To maximize effectiveness, open discectomy is reserved for people who are experiencing buttock and leg pain or weakness that is persistent, severe and/or disabling. If your back or leg pain is not at that level, open discectomy may not be advisable for you and you can possibly do as well with conservative treatment or less invasive therapies."

----> based on that description, I would say that perhaps a discectomy is not in my best interest (in my case, no buttock pain, no leg pain, no numbess in my legs). Although, in all fairness, that is open discectomy, not endoscopic nor laser discectomy

Edit:

After doing some quick reading about discectomies, I would say that I am neither for nor against it. I do recall reading some poster's .sig files that indicate previously (failed) discectomies that then led to ADR sugery.

I guess the plus side to a discectomy is that if it fails, I can still have ADR. If I have ADR, then discectomy is no longer possible (but unlikely that it would be needed).

It does looks like disectomy is a lot less invasive than ADR though.

David