Quote:
Originally Posted by NJ Gene
Karger,
Just to clarify, 95% of people who have ADR at L5/S1 do very well (at least according to what I've read). It does tend to have a higher rate of failure as compared to some of the other levels. It also happens to be a level where fusion is less likely to cause Adjacent Segment Disease.
Note, I am not a doctor, but I've spent a lot of time reading these boards and have learned this from others. I do know from reading these boards and speaking to a couple people who had failed ADR at L5/S1 how debilitating it can be.
If it were me and I had to do the levels L4/L5 and L5/S1 and insurance only covered one level of ADR, I would opt to have L4/L5 done by ADR and L5/S1 fused. That's just me. I'm sure many others will have something to say on this.
Gene
|
I would only do fusion as a last resort. Studies show that most fusion is failure. Although there has been success stories with fusion. It may depend on your doc/surgeon and how good/caring they are. I'd do ADR all the way and leave fusion as a very very last resort due to it's high failure rate.
Part of the issue is that people are banking on insurance. Insurance will do as little as possible. In NA doc's have only been doing it since 2008 and are also bound to FDA regulations and years behind the current disc's.
I wouldn't have it done in North America, I would go to Germany where they have been doing it since 89 and are the world leaders in this field. Even Spain or England over NA IMO.
Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are good doc's in the NA and helped alot of people.. but I would rather find the the most experienced ADR surgeon that has been doing it for 20+ years then someone that only has 7 years under their belt.
I am sure other people have their own opinions, the above is just my 2 cent
