I had an ankle allograft in January 2002. The results are fantastic and I have been sharing this wonderful success with many through e-mail and other ways.
I decided to start this blog to make my experience available online, to share the success and incredible outcome of the procedure with others and to provide support to people who are in the process of having to choose a solution for their ankle problems.
Dear Pierre,
ReplyDeleteYou have been an invaluable resource for me. Thank you so much for being available. I too would like to have the procedure but did not win my appeal with the DMHC. 2 of the 3 doctors did not agree the procedure would be more beneficial stating lack of evidence and failure rate so it shows you there is no consistency. In researching, the DMHC sides with insurance companies 70% of the time, so you were lucky. I have contacted an attorney to help, but I it's a long shot. I will be flying down to see Dr. Bugbee in the next month to meet face to face and discuss my options. Thank you for starting this blog!
Melissa Lynch
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteLet me know how your visit with Dr Bugbee went.
I will have to go visit him sometime soon, my 4 year visit is overdue, but I am too busy to talke a long week end to San Diego right now. I will probably go in fall.
I wish I could do something to help with insurance fight. This is why I posted my file here. I'll try to post more of my appeal.
I know I was lucky with my fight with insurance, somehow. Because in reality it is just normal that they paid. And it is not normal that they don't.
Dear Pierre,
ReplyDeleteI saw Dr Bugbee last year after much time on the internet trying to look for help with my ankle, my story is a little different than others since I was born with a club foot, 4 surgery's later the foot is now straight but now an dealing with the lack of technology from the surgery's done in 1966 to 1970.
I have seen doctors now from Fresno to of course Dr Bugbee in San Diego. He stated that I would first need an osteotomy as the angle of my joint is at 15 to 20 degrees off. I have seen an associate of Dr Bugbee, Dr Copp as Bugbee doesn't perform this type of surgery. At this point I'm still confused on what to do.
# 1 - Fusion - possibly the easy way out and be done with it.
# 2 - A joint replacement, the FDA as recently approved a better STAR mechanical joint that looks very good, or
# 3 - The allograft, many other Dr's don't think highly of this treatment.
Michael Kirk
Michael,
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned your case is different than mine, and my choice of the allograft was based on me trying to get
1) away from pain
2) as much activity as possible
3) being able to walk without a limp
4) bring my ankle the closest to what it was before my accident
As I said already, I have been really happy with the procedure and the results.
Every case is different, and results vary, but I can tell you what make me decide for this procedure:
a) Ankle fusion is a well established procedure, covered without problems by insurance and the results are very predictable. However the lack of range of motion and the problems caused by it are many. There are all kind of side effects related to tendons, ligaments and other joints. And I am pretty sure one will still have a limp.
b) STAR or other ankle replacements have probably improved a lot since their introduction, and they are also covered without too much problem by the insurance. What made me chose another option is the fact that I have been told that the life of the joint is limited, the failure usually happen where the artificial ankle is screwed into the bone and once it fails, you can’t really replace it again. But I have to say I didn’t research that much this option as in my case the allograft seemed the best choice.
c) Ankle allograft is looked at with suspicion, this is true. It is hard to have it covered by insurance, and other doctors don’t really recommend it. I am not sure why, just maybe because it is outside the mainstream, because it is more expensive than a fusion, and because there are no big companies behind the fabrication and sale of the replacement ankle. What I can say is that in my case it has been a total success. I would do the same thing again without hesitation. And the fact that I still have a joint (unlike fusion) and that I have only a couple of screws in my leg (compared to all the hardware involved with STAR) make me believe that it was the more natural way to fix it.
I hope I was of some help, I wish you all the best for whatever procedure you will chose.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
Sincerely,
Pierre
I have not seen any comments for a while on here, but wondering if anyone (Pierre) still checks this. I have a long, and complicated story, and after 2 allograft ankle transplants, I am left with a 100k bill that the insurance company will not approve. Do you have an email address so I can possibly get some more info from you? Please let me know, I would appreciate any help or advice I can get.
ReplyDeleteyes, you can contact me on this blog.
ReplyDeleteOr if you want a more anonymous conversation, you can contact me directly at pierreherve@yahoo.com
I did collect a lot of document for my appeal, and meant to post them at some point, just didn't get to it yet.
Looking forward to communicate more with you.
I had my allograph procedure with Dr. Bugbee July 9th 2014. I am still waiting on pending ins. so I don't have any input on that subject as yet, I am still NWB for 3 more weeks. The ankle x-rays look "very good" and it sounds fabulous. My old ankle sounded like i was grinding up rice krispies.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for any input! Knowledge/information is good!