Lumbar artificial discs below Scoliosis fusion

[Tableone]

Has anyone had Scoliosis surgery with a long fusion and then had artificial lumbar discs placed BELOW their fusion for Degenerative Disc Disease? I need ANY and all information on this from anywhere in the world as I am planning this surgery for myself.

I want to specify that this pertains to people who have had multiple levels of their spine fused for Scoliosis and then come down with lumbar DDD as a result of the Scoliosis surgery.

I am desperately trying to avoid the conventional treatment for previously fused Scoliosis patients, which is fusion to the sacrum. I'm bone on bone now, and need to act soon so my vertebrae don't start fusing themselves.
I need two ADR's: L-4-5 and L5-S1.

This is a complex case and I need to know which surgeon has done this surgery on patients like myself before.

Thank you,

[Maria]

Sorry to read about the complexity of your case.
I would address Mark Mintzer with your questions (mmglobal) or write to him separately as he would likely be the person that could help with referrals and information you're seeking.

Good luck to you in your continuing spinal endeavors.

Maria

[Tableone]

Hi:

Thanks for writing back. I have written to Mark twice, but not received a reply. Maybe there was some technical problem or his email has changed. I hope he gets the message soon, I really need surgery ASAP, and it is a special case.

Thank you,

[Maria]

I hope Mark will get back w/you soon as well. You might try addressing a post to him here with your questions as another way to get his attention.

[Tableone]

Maria: Hello and thanks for answering again. I was able to make private contact with the surgeon that had experience with this particular situation.

Thanks again,

[mmglobal]

Tableone... sorry about the missed communication.

I did research for a client who had a scoliosis fusion at age 17 from T2 down to L4, so the only functioning disc level was L5-S1. She was in her late 40's at the time and L5/S1 was pretty thoroughly collapsed.

I understand that when these long scoli fusions are extended to the sacrum, that the potential problems are very substantial. Motion preservation technology is pretty attractive here. There is much to discuss, but too much to type... please contact me.... My phone number is on the website contact us pages... ispine and globalpatientnetwork.com

[Tableone]

Hello:

I just wanted to say that I resolved my technical problems and Mark received my message through this site. He then called me and spoke to me at length. I very much appreciate that even though I was not a paid client of his, he still spoke to me. He told me some valuable information about facet disease in conjunction with ADR. I'm fairly well-researched myself, but he knew stuff that I did not.

Thanks,

[Maria]

With whatever you will be doing with regard to current and future spine decisions! Hope whichever path/option you choose will work out well for you!
Please keep us posted if you are so inclined~

Maria

[vnf]

I joined another forum in 2006. I never joined another forum after that because I didn't see the point of it. The other forum was very active.
That being said, I joined it in 2006. Didn't have surgery until 2011.
Somewhere, in all of that time, I missed hearing about an Active L and never heard of Dr. Zeegers. Never got a call nor guidance from the forum owner as to disc choice, doctor's etc.

Someone on that other forum suggested this forum to me when it came time to talk about revision surgery.
I joined here and I talked with Mark almost immediately.
I have learned so much from Mark and he spends many hours trying to share his knowledge. I wish I had found him sooner. Maybe I wouldn't be in the boat I'm in today if I had Mark's guidance back in 2011.

I really appreciate that he takes time to share what he's learned.
Mark truly cares for others (even while suffering himself).
I'm not sure why this forum isn't more active.
Mark has a ton of knowledge and I don't think people realize how many surgery's Mark has actually scrubbed in on and personally has watched.
He talks from actual operating room experiences.
You can tell when you talk to him that he knows his stuff!

This will be my one session to toot the horn for Mark.
He really doesn't care about horn tooting, but it's nice to say thank you and let you know that your caring is very appreciated.
The education you share is awesome and I think maybe you missed your calling to be a doctor.

[Maria]

Vicki,
T1 replied that she had made contact with Mark and spoke to him. I agree about how helpful he is ~

There was another spine forum that I got the boot from that was very active although I have no idea now and that was ADRsupport.org and then there was another one Spinepatient some thing or other .. that was really quite active as well.

While I didn't care for the person running ADRsupport.org for a number of reasons there was a lot of movement there with regard to people that got ADRs .. the other forum that was Spinepatient something or other had a lot of various types of spine surgery persons replying to it and there was a lot of movement on that as well.

Mark knows both of the people that started these forums as they sprung off of either Mark's forum or others.

T1 you may not get the answers you're looking for here because of patient population that are replying here so I do hope you will reach out to other spine surgery forums as well if you can find the links for them. Perhaps persons that have had the type of surgeries that you had may have a forum somewhere?

[Maria]

This is the only spine forum I currently post as I don't really have anything to offer much with regard to talking about surgeries beyond discectomies and mine were a number of years ago. I was seeking more spine surgery however for a number of years and Mark helped me navigate thru that maze back around 2003 onwards which I greatly appreciate as well as just being a good listener to my moaning and groaning and hemming and hawing all the while maintaining a very neutral stance and just "being there" for me really when I needed someone to be there while I debated the "what to do, where to go, what surgery or no more surgery" whole shebang.

The other forums while having a lot of movement also had a lot of petty arguments that just really didn't need to take place let alone blow up into anything bigger than they did. I found there were people that seemed to like to "one up" others and I felt that was just unnecessary.
Yes Mark's great about not getting into all that and pretty much letting people have their say. Many people have had bad spine surgery experiences and sometimes are just working stuff out of their system. That can take some time so it's nice to be able to have some understanding people replying which sometimes can help to diffuse things a bit and even help a person move on though in my personal experience that just takes one's own time.

The only thing I was suggesting for T1 is that perhaps she might find someone or some persons with similar sort of experiences as I recall back over the years reading on some other spine forums about persons that had been fused down their spine re scoliosis and in fact there was one wonderful lady, Patty, that used to post here that had been fused from her cervical to lumbar spine and last I had seen her it was possible she was going to have more surgery. We have the same OSS in the same city only she had all her surgeries with him and I have had the great fortune to be followed by him since '98 without having had any surgery with him or any more spine surgery. I don't think anyone else would have kept me as their Orthopedic Spine patient that long without having more surgery!

Just one more thing about other spine forums.. Mark and I met on the either the Neurology or Neurosurgery forum at Massachusetts General back I think in 2000 or 2001 (Mark?) and Mark was just getting ready to go to Germany to get his 2 new lumbar ADRs so it was an incredibly exciting time for those of us following Mark's lumbar ADR endeavor! Also it's what made me realize there was something out there other than the 3 level global fusion I was offered back in 2000 and really didn't want to get. I'm just wondering if that forum is still in existence and if one is able to access it. Actually Mass Gen had forums for every condition pretty much so that was very cool. It had some technical problems back a number of years ( at least I think technical) and shut down for a while and after that I never was able to access it again though it might well be in existence and worth checking out if so.

Ok I better go to bed... I got an injection of cortisone today at a Hand Clinic for "trigger thumb" and as you can clearly see at nearly 3:15a.m. I am bit jacked up from it still!!!! I sure hope I can sleep or my back will let me know tomorrow that it's not pleased with me! Or maybe not.. the cortisone probably is helping everything