There has not been enough testing or monitoring to suggest that either case is true.
In theory the ADR should help to alleviate the collapse of adjacent discs. I've seen pics online of failed Bryan Discs that completely calcified.
So this is truly a "time will tell" scenario. The bigger problem is who is going to run the studies and track them over such long periods of time to get accurate data. Someone has to be the test subject.
I'm sure that 10 or 20 more years down the road we'll know for sure. But for those of us living in the here and now we have to roll the dice and take our chances.
I vote that a well designed ADR is more likely to PREVENT further disc degeneration at the adjacent levels. We do know that removing discs is not a good idea. But when it's gone it's gone. What do you do?
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