Dr. Mark Nelson

Oasis is an impressive office with numerous signed photos of various pro athletes including LT, Junior Seau, and Michael Jordan. I had a fairly thorough meeting with Doctor Nelson. He looked at my MRI results, and we talked about fusion and disc replacement. He agreed that fusion was not a good option since I'm young and it would put additional stress on the adjoining vertebrae. He said that he was "on the fence" about disc replacement and did not perform them himself because he was not yet sufficiently comfortable with the procedure. He went on to say that they've been done for around 10 years in Europe but for only 6-7 years here in the States; so there is no clinical information regarding long-term prospects. However, he said that out of all the people he has met, I was one of the best -- if not the best -- candidate he had ever seen for the procedure since I am young and in decent physical condition (e.g., not overweight).

He recommended that I see Dr. Delamarter on Wednesday as planned, although he cautioned me that Delamarter would probably recommend that I get the disc replacement since he seems to be quite an advocate of the procedure. We had a good laugh at Delamarter's website which is "very L.A." Dr. Nelson also recommended that I see a Dr. Peppers in Encinitas who also does disc replacements and is supposedly a bit more level-headed in his evaluations. He went on to tell me about some of the risks of the procedure. They go in through the front which can be a bit problematic due to the presence of some large blood (femoral) vessels. The other major (although unlikely) risk is infection. Either situation would be fairly catastrophic with the infection requiring a subsequent fusion operation. However if one of the large blood vessels were compromised in moving them out of the way to access the spine, a patient could bleed to death in a matter of minutes. Scary stuff!


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appointment with Dr. Mark Nelson, MD at:
Oasis Spine Center
5471 Kearny Villa Rd, Suite 200
San Diego 92123-1143
(858) 571-0606
FAX: 571-1933
from the website:

Dr. Mark Nelson is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon and Spine Specialist offering surgical and non-surgical spine treatments....
Dr. Nelson moved to San Diego, CA where he joined Oasis Sports Medical Group, the area’s premier Sports Orthopaedic Group with a long history of treating professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes. Here at Oasis Spine Center, Dr. Nelson has merged the lessons of sports medicine with the best in modern spinal treatment to create the Oasis Spine Center – committed to getting you back in your game!