J & J have nothing to do with ProDisc.
Suggesting that an individual case like this has to do with the design of the disc seems silly to me. I know hundreds of successful ProDisc patients. I know many failures of all device types. The ProDisc does not have a failure rate that is substantially different than the others.
I have never seen sloppy work from Dr. Bertagnoli. I have hundreds of clients who have been to him, and hundreds more that have been elsewhere. His output is uniformly excellent. Sadly, all spine surgeries come with substantial chance of failure. Unnecessary failures come from technical issues related to incorrect implantation. More unnecessary failures come from failed diagnoses that might have been avoided with more appropriate patient selection. There will still be a substantial percentage of failures that we don't understand. Many of the surgeons I now suspect that many or most of these failures would have failed regardless of the implant or type of surgery. I believe that is true. I have seen so many unexplained failed spine surgeries of all types.
Gotta go now... more later.
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