Stenum - My story

[Gil Denis]

Hi Cp

I am sorry for your outcome. I wish you find a solution for your pain. Finding the right surgern it very hard to do.
All Surgery have good and bad outcomes Its a crap shoot

Please keep us posted

Gil

[Maria]

cp,
Back in '92 I had my 2nd spine surgery which was a percutaneous discectomy.
It failed very miserably with horrendous nerve related symptoms/radicular and for the longest time I blamed myself.

I said some of the very same things I saw that you posted and I can only imagine what you're feeling with regard to your decision but you thought the surgeon would do his job, you thought you were going to a world class surgical center, and you had faith.

We never know the outcome with spine surgery we only hope for the best and that's what you did.

I know I kept thinking is hindsight is so useful it should be foresight tho still again with spine surgery~ who knows..

Thanks for your input re your experience and let's hope that what you have reported might help others with the surgical inquiries and quest.

[wilsonrob]

I had a similar experience as you. The surgery went so fast that Ritter Lang cut the major iliac vein resulting in major blood loss and multiple DVT's. In addtition I continued to have leg pain. I ended up having many more micro type posterior decompressions and now my leg pain is mostly gone (I recently had my piriformis muscle removed that was also causing some sciatica). Why can't you get some micro surgery to decompress the nerves and open the foramen posteriorly?

[JKDE302]

O my, thats very, very bad news....can I ask which disc was used? M6? Pro-Disc?

[steve55]

This makes me feel fortunate that I went to dr bertagnoli. My 3 level ADR should have taken 3 hours but took 6 hours. When I asked Dr B why it took so long he said mine was a technically challenging surgery due to all the nerve decompressions that he had to do one at a time at each level. So, it was interesting that he did not go into mentioning the ADR's as being difficult to place, his answer focused on the decompression of the nerves. Though, as many here know my 3 ADR's had to come out due to staph infection, the 3 level ADR removal conversion to fusion also took 6 hours.

I wonder if you could remove the ADR's, have the doc decompress those levels and simply put them back in??

[dshobbies]

Hi cp and welcome to the forum,

I am so sorry for pain that continues to rule your life. You put your hopes and dreams into one basket and that basket broke. There has been some heated discussion on Stenum and we thought their stats had improved over the years. Thank you for sharing because this too is important information.

I believe the single most important decision in back surgery, and I suppose any surgery, is your surgeon. Good luck and I hope you find the relief you so need.

Dale

[JKDE302]

Originally Posted by steve55

This makes me feel fortunate that I went to dr bertagnoli. My 3 level ADR should have taken 3 hours but took 6 hours.

Steve do you think being opened up for 6 hours is the reason you got the staff infection? just a thought...

[cp7959]

JKD myself I wouldn't use the center Keel Pro Disc that's FDA approved in the states. In a multi level configuration the keels sit right on top of each other providing a greater risk for fracture. I know the M6 keels are staggered as well as the Pro Disc Nova.