SAS-11 Activ-C clinical trial to begin soon
 

I got to spend some time this morning with one of my favorite surgeons, Dr. Frank Coufal. He has a lot of important news.

Both he and Dr. Regan will be co-investigators for the upcoming Activ-C clinical trial. This will be a single-level study. Like other ADR trials, non-reimbursed expenses will be paid by the study. This is a randomized trial, but the control group will get ProDisc-C... not a fusion. Remember to take what I say with a grain of salt. I like to think that I accurately understand and report what I'm hearing. I can be wrong. Things can change. Don't believe what you read on the Internet. Having said that, this is huge news.

He is actively (pun intended) seeking single-level cervical ADR candidates for the study. You can contact his La Jolla office via La Jolla Neurosurgical Associates AMC. You can contact his Orange County office via Welcome to OC Medical Group. Out of town patients may consider using GPN for remote presentation, or do it on your own. Dr. Coufal believes that the trial will begin in a couple of months. (Again, things can change, but that is the info I have now.)

What great news!

Mark

Those of us with multi levels left behind
 

It make me sad and without hope that the spine community of doctors, devices, insurance, and FDA give little hope to those of us with multi level DDD. Even though we know how contined fusion affects the disc above and below; we continue to repeat the same mistakes. Here I sit with peek cage at 3/4 fusion 4/5-5/6 and in need of work on my 6/7 but ADR is not an option. :(

I so relate to your to your feelings of hopelessness. Had it not been for us living in Los Angeles where property values contained enough equity to borrow against, I would have not been able to travel to Germany and would either still be living with no life and very disabled or would have had a (probably) 4 level lumbar fusion for which that outcome remains gratefully unknown.

Just as those who came before us, we are paving the way so our children and their children... won't suffer as we are. Insurance companies are beginning to recognize the benefits to ADR vs. fusion and in the past 10 years, these devices are improving at a rapid rate - as opposed to Mark and other who had only one choice.

Medical science has a long way to go and for those of us who suffer, it seems like at eternity and we may never reep the benefit to the latest and the greatest but it is improving. The insurance industry - all we can hope is that one day the people will prevail and they will no longer own our bodies and I have hope that my grandchildren will stand up to be counted.

Looking at this in the negative only causes more depression and quite honestly, there's just too much of that. Hope isn't dead, it's just sleeping, perhaps even in hibernation, but nonetheless, alive and well.