Activ-L is still years away from approval.
Answers about discs will not be known in a timeframe that is relevant to your decision. It will all depend on who's research you'll believe as we've already seen competing studies... prodisc is better... charite is better...
In reality, I believe that some people will do better with mobile core devices, while others will do better with stationary core devices... and I don't think there is a good way to tell who is who. It's a plus for the mobile core devices that they may 'auto adjust' a configuration and allow the center of rotation of the joint to move to where it needs to be and may even provide more normal kinematics. It is a minus for the mobile core devices that forces of the configuration may consipire to push the core in one direction and have it stay there... yielding a stationary core device with the core in the wrong place. The movement of the Active-L is VERY small compared to the movement of the Charite' so issues on the downside are much smaller.... and the issue of lateral movement of the core are elimiated as it does not move in that direction at all.
Some of us will have facets go bad with ADR regardless of pre-op condition. Some people will have facets get better after ADR even though they have moderate degeneration pre-op. I've seen films presented with grade 3 facets recovering after ADR.
You'll now know the answers to your question... you'll get conflicting opinions to the "are my facets too far gone for ADR" question depending on who you ask. It's encouraging that they are negative w/diagnostic injections. If disc height still OK, other options may be available... DSS?
Gotta go...
Mark
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