I had the opportunity to have the Charite Disc installed inside of my spine by a local surgeon. The surgeon I have a lot of respect for but I did do research on the Charite Disc. I would never have agreed to have this disc installed in side of my spine as the design scared the hell out of me. To have a free floating core never made sense to me when we are designed to move and have range of motion preserved with this new disc technology. I also Googled the Charite Disc and got many sites for lawyers representing people in the United States that had the Charite installed in their spine. I also came upon this article that caused me to have some serious pause over having my local surgeon install this disc:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
This recent article examines 75 patients who had poor outcomes with this disc:
Complications and reoperations of the SB Charité lumbar disc prosthesis: experience in 75 patients
Charite Artificial Disc Generating Controversy - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com
And the list goes on and on.
I chose to get the Maverick discs installed in my spine and had a good outcome going through Stenum in November 2006. I had 4 discs implanted and went with the Prestige discs/cervical and Maverick discs/lumbar.
I am very sorry for your friend's loss. I can only imagine how much pain he was in prior to his death. My only hope is that they continue to research what is best for the treatment of spinal diseases. As it stands, we are the guinea pigs for the surgeons, unfortunately. I only hope his death was not in vain and that this serves as a lesson to all to research, research, and research. Even then, the decisions we all make may not be the best ones, and we are ultimately responsible for the chances we take.
Terry Newton