[Maria]

Just wanted to add that even tho my two discectomies were long ago they were different in surgical approach/technique and there was a HUGE diff in terms of results.

First discectomy in '89 was big open surgery on L5S1 and I had a good recovery. Surgeon had been doing it "that way" for years. 2nd discectomy was in '92 and it was a percutaneous discectomy and I wanted this surgery tho I think the surgeon (and surgery) was pretty new at that time. I was told too much disc was sucked out (very blind procedure back then) and it failed miserably and gave me much more pain/many more probs.

Ultimately both levels rebulged. Like Mark I wish there had perhaps been a way of sealing off the area the instruments were introduced into as perhaps the rebulges wouldn't have occurred and added to my pain/probs. Then again the 2nd surgery was just a flop from the get go...

So I pretty much back up what Mark and Keano both state in terms of getting someone who's really good and experienced at whichever approach/technique/surgery is utlized as that likely is what help optimize your surgical outcome/recovery. This doesn't mean that any outcome is guaranteed just hopefully a better possibility of good outcome.