Kathi,

I was set to see Dr. Jho as my brother lives in Pittsburgh...I saw the surgeons in my local area, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc...Then I talked to a woman who had surgery with Jho on one of the other forums...She was from the Philadelphia area. She did not have good results and told me off line she would never return to him. Not only did she not have good surgical results, but there was no post surgical care. If you have a good outcome, you have no problems getting through to Jho's people, but if you have complaints, they do not return calls. I guess that is why his statistics are so high...He just does not report the failures. There are many people who are afraid to speak up publicly on the boards...

I talked to medical people that know Jho from the Pittsburgh area and after speaking to some of those people...Though they did not speak in specifics...other than to say stay away.....I decided to stay within the norm and saw docs at the U of Pittsburgh; though in the end I went to Baltimore, U of Penn, and then NYC for surgery..Surgeons in Philadelphia told me that they worked with surgeons that studied with Jho and they could not repeat his statistics, so that tells me something is wrong...His procedures work for some...probably if you have something that can be fixed with a very minimally invasive procedure. I was told he would not accept me as a patient because he screens his patients carefully.

My own surgeon, Fabien Bitan, in NYC, does minimally invasive procedures. He apologized for not being able to offer something minimally invasive ...All surgeons would like to be able to offer us something that does not require a long incision, rods, screws, cages, and grafting....but it is not always possible...so be very, very, careful...Do not go into surgery for just pain relief...Those of us that have been on the forums for a long time, know that surgery is not done for just pain relief...It is to provide stability of the spine as well or to ease compression of nerves, etc...so know why you are having surgery and why you are signing a consent form...BE VERY LEARY OF ANY SURGEON THAT PROMISES PAIN RELIEF AS A REASON FOR SURGERY, OR COMPLETE RELIEF OF PAIN...Most of us know that is not going to happen...

I have no regrets about either of my fusions.....I do not know why people have such a fear either of the harvesting of bone from the hip area...I only had pain once after that surgery...and have had them go in there three times for bone....The pain that I felt was not unbearable...I think people worry too much about things that are not really a concern.....A bandaid covers that area after the surgery...I repeat if Jho's statistics can not be repeated, there is something that is not right...and I would be just a bit leary of a doc that does not follow-up with his patients when they have problems after surgery; rather blows them off and acts as though they are a bother....I bet he does not hesitate to cash the check from their insurance company...I had my cervical fusion three years ago and the lumbar fusion two years ago. I am still seeing those docs...I see the doc that did the cervical fusion once a year now and the doc that did the lumbar fusion every six months now...If I have a problem, they are only a phone call away...