re four level fusion
I'm with Dale on that one re "no no". I was supposed to have a 3 level global fusion back in 2001 and I'm so very glad I didn't do that.
There were 2 major reasons I didn't want ADR done here (USA) or even a hybrid surgery and that was because my L3 disc is disrupted with an annular tear and while it wasn't a pain generator on 2 discograms it was on my first and I just was never comfortable with leaving that level alone and working below it and the other major reason for me was that vertebroplasty isn't done here for osteopenia and I have since developed lumbar osteoporosis anyway so I was concerned about subsidence potential if surgery done here w/o vertebraplasty.
Ok I guess I had my doubts altogether because between the FDA and WC I didn't think I'd be getting what I really needed done here. If I had proceeded with surgery out of the country I would lose my future medical benefits on my back with WC (am going to lose them anyway sometime as I'm being pushed to do MediCare Set Aside tho still holding out).
If I had lost my future med I'd lose my PM treatment which acutally has me pretty well stabilized re pain tho I'm having some right now which I think is L4ish.
As Dale stated weigh your options carefully and perhaps there is someone somewhere or some people somewhere with multi level fusions that are going great tho 4 sounds like too many levels to me...
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