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Hello. I am scheduled to have Disc Replacement surgery on 2/25 at a military hospital in Ft. Hood, Tx. The doctor has performed at least 13 surgeries and I am concerned if I should get a second opinion before going ahead with the surgery. My question is what are the pro''s and cons of surgery? I have pain daily and some days is worse than others. I also have Dengenerative, herniated disc issues as well. Any advice? Thanks!

Optional Information:
Male, Age: 30, Texas

Already Tried:
Physical Therapy, Shot to my lower back, restricted lifting, vicodin, motrin for pain.

Customer (name blocked for privacy)

Hi Customer (name blocked for privacy),

Greetings.

If I were you, I would get operated only by a surgeon whom I trust completely & only when there is no doubt left in my mind

More so, if I a was to undergo a new technique of surgery, I would have considered a second opinion.

About the degenerative disc disease-- the replacement solves problem of disc failure due to herniation--IT DOES NOT STOP DISC DEGENERATION. Only disc protection by activity modification MAY halt disc degeneration.

The traditional time-tested surgical treatment of choice is a discectomy with lumbar spinal fusion. This has few drawbacks -

Failure of fusion may occur approximately 25 % cases
Multi-level spinal fusion cause stiffness and decreased motion of the spine.
This also stresses the adjacent levels & accelerates adjacent disc degeneration.

The advantage of artificial disc replacement is

to replace the worn out disc,
preserving the motion at the operated spinal level.
This could treat the underlying back pain,
protects patients from developing problems at an adjacent level of the spine.

Let me remind u that this is as of today an experimental procedure & discectomy fusion is the gold standard of care.

Complications associated with artificial disc replacement -

potential complications associated with undergoing surgery and general anesthesia,
breakage of the metal plate,
dislocation of the implant,
nfection.
Besides, artificial implants may fail over time due to wear of the materials and loosening of the implants.
high cost is another imp consideration

Besides all this if u have a single level problem, then only root decompresion by doing discectomy ( in this only loose fragments of disc are removed-not the entire disc) without fusion might also work well. I would have considered that before any replacement

Hope this helps.

Thank you for asking your question on Just Answer.

Your follow up questions are welcome.

Dr.NK
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