[drewrad]

Interesting facts about Dr Clavel.

I asked so many questions again today with him that he must have felt like he was back in his residency program.

First off, he does not use bone wax on the lumbar. Only on the cervical does he use it.

Second, he does not believe in using the Dacron Shield over the vertebrae after ADR implantation to protect the great vessels from clinging via fibrosis. The new surgeon consensus is that you get the same adhesions either way so what's the use.

Third, he was candid when I asked him about multilevel lumbar with the M6 potentially causing spinal instability or scoliosis. Not every multilevel lumbar(3 ADR) will present with scoliosis, but it does occur. They are asymptomatic however. Well, what about the polymer in an M6 then being compressed on one side unevenly all the time? Answer: there's no way of knowing what effect that will have on the ADR over time.

Bone spurs. When I mentioned Sue Ha's enormous spur, he did not know about it but was honestly concerned. I gave him the website so he could see it for himself. We talked about osteophytes for awhile. Too long to go into here.

I have more homework. He wants me to get a standing X Ray to determine if my sacral slope is too steep. We are trying to determine whether my bottom L5/S1 is going to be fused or not.

On that point, he does not use your own hip,bone. instead, he uses BMP material which works just fine on the ALIF.

I am also getting a DEXA bone scan. It'll save me a day in preop at Barcelona if I can do it here.

What else? Can't think of it right now.