74-year-old Male

I am a 74-year-old male. I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in early 2022 after complaining of severe nerve pain in both my shoulders and arms. The orthopedic surgeon who performed the diagnosis suggested strongly that I have surgery to fuse four levels of vertebrae in my cervical spine. To his credit, he made it clear that this would be a major operation with a long recovery period. I subsequently consulted another orthopedic surgery associated with Stanford University and an orthopedic surgeon in Geneva, Switzerland. The former suggested that I wait until the pain became unacceptable (which it already was), in which case he recommended fusing one or possibly two levels of vertebrae. The Swiss surgeon also recommended fusing one or possibly two levels of vertebrae.

When I discussed these recommendations with my regular physician, who bills himself as a sports medicine practitioner, he was horrified and enumerated for me the downsides of fusing any number of discs, notably the loss of mobility in my neck and the risk that the discs on either side of the fused area would continue to deteriorate at a more rapid pace, requiring further surgical intervention. He recommended to me that I explore the possibility of having the affected discs replaced with artificial discs and provided to me Dr. Bertagnoli’s contact information. After studying Dr. Bertagnoli’s website and meeting him in person in Germany, I decided to proceed with the replacement of four discs with artificial discs as recommended by Dr. Bertagnoli after our meeting and after he viewed my MRIs.

The procedure was done in December 2022. I believe that the actual surgery lasted about four hours and I came out from under the anesthesia within another couple of hours. The facility where the surgery was performed was first rate. Within a few days of the surgery I was back in my hotel and moving comfortably. Ten days following the surgery I flew from Munich back to my home in California. By the time I left Munich the pain in my shoulders and arms had nearly disappeared and it continued to lessen over the coming months. Now, two years following the surgery, I have no pain in my shoulders and arms and my two-year post-surgery x-rays show that the artificial discs implanted by Dr. Bertagnoli are holding up perfectly.

I would highly recommend to anyone suffering from spine-related pain to consult Dr. Bertagnoli before undertaking any surgical procedure. He is the consummate professional and his team and surgical facility are first class.”

I hope that the foregoing is useful!

Best wishes.

David