Rocky, I'm so sorry that you had a poor outcome. I have 2 Charite's that have worked well for more than 7 years now. If you look on the GPN website (linked in my sig file below), you'll see a vide of me playing tennis with the very first Charite' patient... done in east Berlin, 1984. There are some design issues with the Charite that have been improved upon over the years. However, I believe that the disc works well (when properly installed in a properly selected patient.)
The problem with the old Charite' is that with the highly mobile core, lack of a locking mechanism and the thin rim; in the presence of a significant structural issue, the failure mode can be catastrophic. Many of the other designs will have a less frightening failure mode when things like subsidence or migration of the plates occurs.
Most of the problems I see with the Charite' are related to poor implant sizing, improper location and other surgical mistakes. Sadly, with spine surgery, even when everything is done perfectly, significant failures still occur. Even though the catastropic expulsion of the core, breaking of the rim and wire and other Charite' specific problems are not likely or not possible with other prosthesis, horrible outcomes with other devices (and fusions) occur at rates similar to the Charite'. Sadly, many of the problems might have been avoided with more experienced or careful surgeons.
I know that none of this helps you at all. For you the failure rate is 100%. My heart goes out to you. I hope you can find some relief.
Mark
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