Thanks for responses.
Aaron…..Six years is a good test of time. Is your DD minor and disc herniation ‘contained’ type. These are supposed to be best criteria for success of G&C. On the other hand if DD has not worsened over the years, possibly it has been helping.
Job13…It is hard for me to see how disc abrasion was a useful suggestion for you. Your disc injury and initial slight loss of height was from physical disc injury, not from any problem with nutrient supply, unless you had calcified endplates.
Micro disectomy is often referred to as the ‘gold standard’ compared to other surgeries and likely this is true but only in respect to short term pain reduction. Otherwise the procedure is damaging to the biology and mechanics of the disc. Effective annular repair might help but is rarely attempted. Result is that micro disectomy often leads to ADR or fusion later on. I think putting holes in discs and invading the nucleus, is something to be strongly avoided where possible. In my case I had grade 5 tears and disc fragments squeezed out so I carried out microdisectomy on myself.
IDET or any form of intense heat I don’t like. Don’t know how the biology of the disc would respond to something so extreme. As you have said, ask for list of former patients to contact, but at least 2+ years after treatment would be best. Risk is doctor would pick only good outcomes anyway.
A few places do offer injection of G&C into discs and results (published by themselves) sound good, better than IDET.
http://www.treatingpain.com/diagnosi...vs.%20IDET.pdf
Again, it raises question of why no follow up studies?
The cynic inside me wonders if they receive payment by ADR and Fusion industries not to do any more research or publish any more about the subject. Healing discs would not be good for business.
Mark…I agree the images could be better, but as two of the authors were PhD, and they declared no competing interests, I guess the images are real, which still leaves the questions hanging. The authors themselves suggested follow up trials/studies and they should be very easy to do, but no one has.
They did address the question why L4-5 disc was not able to regenerate…“not in the almost fully degenerated L4-5 disc, where probably little or no functional chondrocytes are left.” A relevant study
Differential recovery of glycosaminoglycan after I... [Arthritis Res Ther. 2003] - PubMed result
If you could point towards some other locations of images of disc regeneration I would be grateful. I saw one on Dr Hoogland abrasive technique website though this procedure did not go well for Job13.
Willkommen im Alpha Spine Center*-*HERNIATED DISC
I am more skeptical when someone claims regeneration, and they also make money out of the procedure. Still if they have numerous clear MRI before and after images, that certainly would warrant close attention.