Hi Ans: Please note, I have not criticized ADR/Prodisc. IF the stats were true, (as I believed), I would be all for it. That's why we chose it. If your conditions indicated ADR strictly (as nearly ALL surgeons state ... including Dr. B.) then you will fit those high stats. If a surgeon disregards the indications, then you no longer benefit from the stats. The trials used highly selected patients - perfect candidates. If your facets are half-blown, then forget about the stats.
My points were:
1) The success stats highly correlate with the degree of financial investment of some surgeons
2) No one even discussed fusion - ever. My wife was absolutely contraindicated. I got this from numerous US/UK/FR/NL/DE surgeons afterwards.
3) We were told revision would be easy. We were very concerned about the keels. We were not told that everyone in Germany would refused to do it.
4) We were appalled that the surgeon never even visited ... even though it had been 5 months since our original visit - where our images were already 5 months old. He never even said hi ... until 3 months later ... with a legal team.
Fuzzy: We agree that Dr. Zeegers is incredibly nice and accessible. Our beef is with the knee surgeon ... who did not show up for any of the 4 visits we made specifically to see him. In any case, AK did say 'ADR' for us ... and nothing else. I didnt mean to imply that AK or Stenum or ProSpine never do fusion. The question is really: Do they ignore the rules when desired ... although following them strictly in their stat gathering trials? Some here say that facet arthrosis is NOT a contraindication, and that a collapsed disc is also not. I say that is crazy.
Cheers,
Matt
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