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I’ve recently become (re)acquainted with a German neurosurgeon named Dr. Jan-Peter Warnke. I had the pleasure of spending some time with him during the last couple of weeks. He got on my radar as a world leader in dealing with Tarlov Cysts. He uses a technique that is not practiced in the US (at least that I could find, discussing a client’s case with many of the leaders in TC treatment in the US.)

It was an amazing coincidence finding Dr. Warnke. I chased him via email for a couple of months and had a difficult time getting him interested in what I do. When I was finally able to arrange a meeting I realized who I was talking to. Even though my client found him as the #1 world leader in TC treatment, and I did not recognize his name, our paths had crossed before. 10 years ago, when I saw his name, I heard, ‘warn-key’. Now, when I see it, I hear “varnka”. The sounds are so different, I never made the connection. It turns out that Dr. Warnke was my first “out of normal channels” consultation. He is a dear friend of a dear friend. 10 years ago, he sat in my living room to discuss my back problems and surgical options. For the next few months, I kept emailing him with more questions. How serendipitous is it to independently research surgeons for a new (to me) condition and come up with this one surgeon who had been to my house 10 years earlier?

Yesterday, we spent a couple of hours together and I’m very pleased to say that I expect him to be a great option for spine patients. He practices in Zwickau, Germany and has amassed a great deal of ADR experience. In recent years he’s performed more than 150 lumbar ADR procedures (ProDisc) and more than 100 cervical ADR procedures. Early cervical ADR experience was with the Bryan disc, but his last 80 cervical procedures have all been with the Spinal Kinetics M6 ADR.

I was very pleased when we discussed pricing. Because we just started discussing options and I’ve not seen patients going through the process yet, I’m not certain how everything will pan out. However, I expect Dr. Warnke to be more than just competitive with Stenum for M6 pricing while providing first quality surgery.

Dr. Warnke is a pioneer in microsurgical procedures for both brain and spine. The thecaloscopy procedure he performs for TC’s is truly amazing. He uses a scope that includes video, irrigation and working channels that is 2.8mm. This is less than ½ the size of the scopes I’ve seen in other endoscopic procedures.

I truly look forward to learning more about Dr. Warnke, Paracelsus Hospital, Zwickau, the pricing and everything else associated with having surgery there. He is providing options that would otherwise not be available for Tarlov Cyst patients, other neural cysts, and general spine surgery including the latest in motion preservation. I’ll post more as I learn it!

All the best,

Mark