Katie, I have to caution you about putting too much stock in what you read on the internet... including what I write. There should be no decisions based on what you find here. Use the info here to help develop questions and improve the dialog with your doc.
Also keep in mind that my experience with the interspineous devices is quite limited. I do have a couple of older clients with successful treatment with xstop and coflex and a few with coflex as stabilization behind ADR. However, I've not been associated with a young person who has in interspineous device implanted to deal with discogenic pain, leg pain, DDD.
Your post mentions L3-S1 implantation. 3 levels? How many 3 level procedures has your surgeon done with Diam? How many L5-S1's? Clinical trial guidelines did not allow L5-S1 or multi-level procedures.
I believe that one of the things that makes these devices acceptable in older patients is that they have already lost so much disc height so further collapse is not expected. Your doctor said that your intact discs will keep the configuration from collapsing into kyphosis. Ask him if he expects your disc degeneration to stop or will it continue? What will happen to the configuration as the discs continue to lose water and break down?
Again, my experience is very limited... take everything I say with a grain of salt. This is just fodder for the dialog, not a warning against or an endorsement for any procedure or devide. I'm a computer geek... not a doctor.
Please keep us posted as you go through the dialog.
All the best,
Mark
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