[jss]

Anne,

TBI is a spine facility that participates in a lot of IDE trials. So they are on the 'cutting' edge of most all spine treatments that are new in the US.

Most of the surgeons there have been doing ADR for many years and are probably on par with their European counterparts. As spine surgery is a for-profit business and not a charity, I think that their pricing, willingness to negotiate, etc ... is all based on the desire to make a buck. My guess is that if they have a slow time (like a car dealership when it rains) that you could negotiate a better price than if they have more patients than they can treat.

If you know of a specific doctor there that you want to see, you can request an appointment with them. If not, then they'll assign you the next one that's available.

Some countries have national registries for surgical procedures where you can look at success rates for a myriad of procedures; English Wales Joint Registry, Austrailian Registry, etc... I'm unaware of such an animal for the US. I don't know how you'd go about comparing US and European success rates other than forums like this one. That may not be a 'good' way of comparing, but as far as I know it is the ONLY way.

If you have surgery in Europe (like I did), it is likely that you'll have trouble finding a spine surgeon in your area that is willing to treat you if, may God forbid, you have problems when you get home. It took me weeks to find a surgeon in the Dallas area that was willing to see me for a "well-baby" check a year and a half post-op. That is a common story btw.

All surgeons have bad outcomes, and for a host of different reasons. A key is to find one that seems to have among the lowest rates of of bad outcomes. Unfortunately the only way I know of looking at their outcome rates is by spending hours and hours in surgical outcome forums. This is what Cynlite seems to be currently doing, and it is the absolutely best way to start this process. If you do that too, you will begin to see patterns emerge; patterns with doctors, with implants, with specific treatments after specific symptoms, etc... I wouldn't shy away from Blumenthal just because you've found a patient that had a bad outcome with him. Now if you discovered that was a pattern, then yes. (you won't find that btw)

Good Luck!