[johnb]

I had an MRI and x rays reviewed by 2 other surgeons (one very well known with authored research) who said screw placement looked great and they even pointed out to me why it was where it was supposed to be (if that makes sense) I did not get a CT scan of the placement which would have been best but that is what I had to work with. The surgeon who put it in was the one who took it out. My surgeon said the screws had not loosened and nothing was broken. Before I had it taken out, I could sit in a good office chair and my pain would dissapear. I could also mash my thumbs up against my back where spacers were and I could feel my leg pain lesson. Its like the spacers had to be against something to straighten out and decompress things. I've read that some industry folks believe that the spacers don't resist well against axial loading once they softened. I'd have left it in but the leg pain I would get after walking a very short distance was multiples worse of what I had pre op. The difference between no leg pain and pain after aggravation was the opposite extremes where before it was pretty steady on the right side hamstring above the knee. It was awful when bad, occured when walking short distances, and was just too life limiting.

One thing I forgot to add. I found some info in of the many research articles that I reviewed (it was a case review) that surgeons sometimes do preventive foraminotomies when lordosis is restored via pedicle screw anchored constructs when disc height is short and facets are enlarged. Who knows. There was a cause and effect reason and it would have been helpful to have a scan while axially loaded but I was just put out with all of it.

In summary, no explanation given.

John