Artificial Disc Replacement London
Artificial Disc Replacement
Artificial disc replacement
2009 Author: Vicky Joseph
Vicky Joseph describres her experience of this surgery
Things went from bad to worse and I was virtually unable to sit, stand or walk; I even had to eat in a kneeling position.
During a brisk walk in January 2000, I developed a tremendous ache in my right hip and groin. Anxious to get back to walking I saw a chiropractor who diagnosed a strained sacroiliac joint and advised me to “take it easy for a couple of weeks”. I took it easy but the pain got worse and moved to my back as well. So I went to a sports injury specialist who ordered an MRI, found nothing more than ‘some minor degeneration normal for my age’ (45) and referred me for physiotherapy which didn’t help. Things went from bad to worse and I was virtually unable to sit, stand or walk; I even had to eat in a kneeling position. No position gave me relief and I frequently felt as if someone had plunged a knife into my side.
The following five years were nothing less than a nightmare that I thought would never end. I saw osteopaths, neurologists, rheumatologists, orthopaedic surgeons and several pain specialists, acupuncturists, homeopaths, Pilates and Alexander technique teachers, faith healers and even a ‘psychic surgeon’. It wasn’t until March 2005, after a chance encounter on an Internet pain forum led me to a specialist back clinic in Munich, Germany () , that I finally got a diagnosis, and not until the autumn that my life began the slow journey back to normality.
Diagnosis
In Munich, yet another MRI (my sixth) amazingly showed a possible cause for my undiagnosed pain – a ruptured disc at L5-S1. An excruciating discography confirmed that the disc was a pain generator and the doctor, Dutch surgeon Dr Willem Zeegers called me back into his office to discuss my options. There were three –
- do nothing,
- try a minimally invasive procedure that allegedly had a 50% chance of success or
- have the damaged disc removed and replaced with an artificial one.
Dr Zeegers tried to persuade me to do nothing which, after an outburst of tears, I realised was to test my resolve to go ahead. In fact I did have the minimally invasive procedure the following month but it didn’t help and my husband accompanied me to Munich for the artificial disc replacement (ADR) surgery.
The surgery
The first artificial disc replacement implant, consisting of a steel ball inserted between the vertebrae to maintain space mobility, was introduced in Sweden in the early 1960s and used in more than 100 patients . Although research to develop a safe, reliable and long lasting implant with the ability to mimic the movement of the human spine has been ongoing for over 40 years , ADR surgery has only recently become available in the UK and the USA. In Munich, however, Dr Zeegers ...