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Plus the surgeon will re-model the facets to remove the spurring/osteophytes (then coat with bone wax) and improve their morphology
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Huh? Is another surgeon talking about another surgery? This is not part of the ADR surgery.
The problem with spine is that there are no certain answers to most of the question. For some with degenerated facets, ADR will improve the kinematics and spinal balance and allow the facets to heal. For others, the facets will remain painful... only getting marginally better or possibly getting worse.
Understanding how much of your pain syndrome is facets would be important, but false positives are not rare. When I was discussing my own facet injections with a client of mine who's a pain management needle jockey and 2-level Activ-L patient, he said, "I can make your back pain better with a steriod injection into your hip!" If that injection was into a facet instead, it would generate a false positive result.
I believe if you are considering 3 level surgery, a substantial pain reduction would be great. Pain-free may not be a reasonable expectation... it would be gravy. Remember that people in thier 50's with NO SPINE PROBLEMS will still have plenty of aches and pains.
I think your history demonstrates the uncertainty of spine. Were you better after your discectomy? Better after your fusion? What would have happend if you did the foraminotomy first? If your surgeries were successful in knocking down the pain generators in order, that is very fortunate!