L4-5 Charite ADR Stenum

[Havanna]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading here and on other forums. This is my first and last post. I've never participated and do not want to share any details about me. Kc0iet's post showing her in a wheelchair after her surgery has moved me. So many of us have known of these problems for years, but for some reason, they remain rumors that float around as subtext. They are never brought to the forefront. I had surgery at Stenum in October of 2004. My outcome was poor, but not horrible. There were others on my trip who's outcomes were unbelievable. I hope that Vikki will come and tell her story. I'm going to post a little of John's story, because he can't. I have contacted John's wife to see if this is OK and she thinks this is an excellent idea and was very supportive.

I can't tell all the details, but John and I shared xrays and a picture is worth a thousand words.

On October 7, 2005, John had a Charite ADR implanted at Stenum hospital. The ADR was off center:


The ADR was not put far enough back:


It came apart inside John:


He ultimately had a revision surgery. He had serious complications from the revision that almost killed him. Unfortunately, remaining in chronic pain and the stress of the ordeal took it's toll on John and his pain problem turned into a drug problem. The drugs took him from us. He died last June.

I appreciate that the technology works for so many patients, but everyone needs to understand how much is at stake here. I hope this helps someone.

H

[wilsonrob]

Wow. I am not here to criticize. This is a very risky surgery. I knew of the many poor outcomes at this clinic but not until I had my surgery. I was one of the crazy outcomes. Fortunately the ADR's were installed well. The cutting of the main iliac vein was a major catastrophe. As I have said before, I believe that there are many good outocmes at this clinic. You can read many of them on this forum. It just seems that there are also many more bad outcomes at this clinic compared to others. I do KNOW that the amount of surgeries done in a day at this clinic far outnumber other clinics. Rushing?? I do not even want to go into the details but when I was there, one man was paralyzed in his arm. No bashing just facts.

[kc0iet]

My deepest sympathy to you and yours. Thank you for sharing John’s pictures.

[New-disc]

Havanna,

Thank you for your post!

Spine surgery is a very risky surgery.

We as humans/doctors still have alot to learn.

When a new technology comes along it can also
be a bigger risk.

My hart goes out to John, his family, and his
friends.

Todd

[Justin]

Thanks for sharing John's story. I have heard both great things about Stenum as well as failures.

I hope John's family is at peace.

[Kathy]

I am so sorry to hear about John and the others who have had bad or less than favorable outcomes. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if any one surgery will work for a certain person. It is a very serious and important decision to have any surgery and should not be taken lightly. We could all have the exact same problem, same surgery, doctor, care, etc. and all end up with a very different outcomes. I think any surgeon who claims to have never have had a bad outcome, is obviously a liar. The choice of a surgeon is as important as the choice of which surgery to have. I hope that this board and others like it will help provide people in the research process with much needed information regarding all spine surgeries and help them to make an informed decision (and doing nothing at all is still a decision, it's just a decision to do nothing and can allow for more damage where one loses the option to have certain surgeries). I know nothing about Stenum, but obviously a place that does as many surgeries as they do is going to have more bad outcomes than somewhere that does less (not because they are 'bad'; but because of the success vs. failure rate). Hopefully, with all of us 'guinea pigs', spine choices in the future will be more black and white and we will understand better why some surgeries fail and some suceed.
Gonna get off the soap box now.....

[Terry Allen Blackburn]

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