New member - Help. Considering ADR surgery? Is it sucessful?

[melly]

I will post my diagnosis shortly. But in the meantime can anyone recommend a good surgeon for this procedure. I may need to have ADR at 2/3 levels in the lumbar. What are the costs? Was it successful? Is it more successful than fusion, which I am reluctant to have at various levels due to mobility and wear and tear on other discs.

Please help!!!!!

[Katie]

Welcome melly! I went through the same mental anguish as you over the past five years, and because of several reasons, including allergies to metals, I ended up with fusion in my lumbar and adr in my cervical.

I don't believe that anyone in the US can do more than one level of ADR right now, except under special circumstances unless that has changed. But there is a wealth of international surgeons who do wonderful work in multiple levels. If you dig through the archives here and ask lots of questions, you should find many of the answers you need.

The most important advice I can offer is to get as many opinions as you can from these surgeons, whether in North America, Brazil, Germany or Spain....it costs little if anything to get them to look at your images, and after awhile, you will start to see a trend in the recommendations. It is also much less expensive to go out of country than at home usually, well worth looking at.

Take care, and explore all you can.

[Katie]

One thing that you could consider is a hybrid...a combination of fusion at the lowest lumbar level with ADR above. The lowest doesn't move much anyway and sometimes as others have said before, lack of movement is all it takes to stop the pain. It is just one option of many, something to ask the doctors.