TPatti,
Thanks for the timeline. So, hopefully I'll talk with Dr. Bierstedt approximately 3 weeks from Wednesday (when they're expected to receive my stuff). Organizing and waiting for all of these diagnoses/consultations with numerous surgeons at home and abroad is really draining when you feel like s&#@. I keep hoping I don't do something stupid to make myself worse before I have the surgery.
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Jeff,
I've heard that Dr. Bierstedt was told at a conference that the M6 failed at L5-S1, but that Bierstedt attributed it to one or both of the following:
- the M6 should not have been put at L5-S1 in that particular patient
- poor surgical technique
Why exactly are you concerned about the M6 housing infection? Can you elaborate on that a little more?
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LauraB,
Advanced facet hypertrophy and poor bone density are contraindications for TDR. Some would argue that even mild facet hypertrophy is a contraindication. As TPatti points out, perhaps some discs will allow for more hypertrophy than others. I suggest you get checked for both and then trust your surgeon's recommendation. You might also consider a metal allergy blood test to make sure your body is good with whatever is implanted:
metal allergy testing
If you believe that fusion is the lesser of two evils, then you should strongly consider it. I know it's sort of apples to oranges since it's lumbar, but I was fused at L5-S1 in 1992. It afforded me almost 20 years of relatively little pain and no restrictions. Unfortunately, in 2011, adjacent segment disease finally started catching up with me at L4-5. I believe fusion will inevitably lead to adjacent segment disease. How much and when will vary greatly. That said, sometimes it's undeniably the better (or only) choice. Even if ADR was available to me in 1992, I wouldn't have been able to get it, because my condition was spondylolisthesis. Point is - don't make the mistake of drinking the ADR cool-aid. It can do wonders for the right candidates and cause horrors for the wrong ones.