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Old 12-26-2013, 04:20 PM
bwink23 bwink23 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 263
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jss View Post
Lucelia,

You will forgive my delayed reply. We've just returned home from a funeral and an extended Christmas holiday in our home town (Wichita Falls, TX). We had an outstanding visit and trust that you had a very Merry Christmas as well!

Condolences on the need for surgery. The best course to take is extremely difficult to determine, usually impossible to know, sometimes even years after surgery.

I've made no secret of my affinity for the M6 and aversion to the ProDisc. Even so, I don't know which you should pursue. I need to start keeping statistics from the surgical outcome forum. It certainly seems that those that go to Europe for an M6 are significantly more likely to do better than those that stay in the US for a ProDisc or fusion; certainly in the short term (four years or less).

I would encourage you to spend long hours reading in the surgical outcomes forum of this site, and of any other spine forums that you can find. You will see patterns begin to emerge. There simply is no substitute for that kind of research. It will not be long before my C7/T1 disc has to come out. Rather than drop another $30k in Europe, if my insurance carrier will cover a Mobi-C, I will very likely do that. I've already begun researching US surgeons for that intervention. Whatever you do, I would implore you to not use a surgeon whose record with the device you select cannot be researched and verified.

I don't understand that either... What does "FDA approved" mean? Multilevel ADR has been done in the US for over a decade, even though it wasn't "approved". Insurance carriers routinely refuse to pay for approved procedures while paying for procedures that haven't been approved. I don't understand it either. I do wonder if US surgeons tend to recommend not the procedure that they believe to be the best for the patient, but rather the one that they believe that the insurance will cover?

Good luck, Jeff

I got a taste of that when i visited a local doc about my low back...he didn't even bring up ADR to me, and when i asked him about it, he said i wouldn't be a good candidate for it. I told him the other doc i talked to said i was a perfect candidate for it (did a fellowship at Texas Back Institute). He proceeds to say "Well insurance doesn't cover it so we don't even talk about it."


Perfect example right there....not what's BEST for you, but what's best for THEM.
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2013 - MRI and CT scan....DDD L4-S1
left side (where my pain is) interarticularis pars fracture/defect with Spondylolithesis L5 over S1 with 2MM anterior displacement

Feb. 2014 - Hybrid lumbar fusion(l5/S1), ADR(L4/L5)...2-level cervical ADR (C5/C6, C6/C7). Dr. Pablo Clavel of Quiron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. All M6 implants (PEEK cage and plate from Medtronic at fusion level in lumbar.) SAME DAY OPERATION for both areas of the spine.
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