below is a link to an interesting article on back surgery. its a few years old but still relatively current, written by Jerome Groopman
http://www.jeromegroopman.com/articl...-the-back.html
"Jerome Groopman, M.D. is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and one of the world's leading researchers in cancer and AIDS. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post, along with several books.
This was written before artificial disc surgery came to the US. The surgeons in Germany, UK, and Spain are actually better at spine surgery than our top docs in the US. We are brainwashed in the US to think that we have the best health care in the world.... I would take a private doctor in the UK over the top doc in the US anyday of the week...