[Maria]

Hi Joe,
I've seen Dr.Delamarter for my my lumbar spine and was going to utilize him to do either a 2 level disc replacement or a few years later a hybrid surgery with fusion at L5S1 and disc replacement at L4. I was always concerned about 2 other things and that was vertebroplasty because I had osteopenia (now osteoporosis) and this isn't offered in the US and I had and probably still have disc disruption at L3 which wasn't concordant for pain on 2 out of 3 discograms but I wondered what would happen to L3 after surgery on L4 and L5S1.

Dr.Delamarter has a great reputation here in SoCal and there are plenty of people that have had surgery with him and are pleased so I'm sure a few will contribute some input here.

It sounds like you're in good hands tho I always like to get a 2nd and even 3rd oinion when it comes to spine surgery. It's such a big step especially with so many levels involved.

Make sure you get a Bone Mineral Density test done no matter what anyone says. Just because you're 41 and male doesn't mean you couldn't have bone density problems so just make sure you don't before undergoing any surgery of mulitple level magnitude.

Wishing you the absolute best with whatever you do.