Bitan does bring something special to the table. He spent many years specializing in scoliosis surgery (he was president of the pediatric scoliosis society.) This experience gives him a great deal of reconstruction experience. A such a heavy hitter in spine, he gets the difficult cases. I've watched him in the OR and he's pretty amazing with his efficiency and accuracy. The procedures I watched him do were very 'difficult to get right' procedures and he made it look easy to get perfect sizing and placement. I believe that the approach for cervical revisions is much easier and less risky than lumbar because of the small muscles they have to go through and no great vessels in the way. I've watched explantation of cervical hardware and it really seemed to be very straightforward compared to the lumbar revision surgeries I've seen. I think that all of the options you've discussed are very reasonable. I am very hopeful for a good recovery for you.
I have a slight tilt in my upper disc but it's not related to subsidence. It turns out that I was tilted before surgery and believe it's because of my posture and anatomy. When I get home, I will start working on trying to correct it with PT. Let's hope we'll not be brothers in tilt for too much longer. (I've got more time now... you can call my US or German cell, just be mindful of the time difference - pacific time + 9 hours.)
Mark
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