Surgery with Dr Bautrant or Dr Bollens

[dkowal]

Hello, My first time posting. Has anyone from the US had surgery with either Dr Bautrant or Dr Bollens in the last few years who would be willing to share their experience and how the process was being able to get to fly to France or Belgium with the pain, where they stayed, how surgery went, how the doctor was, and how they are doing now?

I am considering surgery with both of these doctors. My problem started 3 months after a laminectomy procedure. Prior to that I worked out pretty much everyday. I am a woman suffering with this for the past 2 years. I have tried many treatments, medication, injections, botox, acupuncture, pelvic PT for 2 years, laser therapy, shockwave treatment, and more but nothing has worked.

Would welcome anyone from Europe who would share their experience with either of these doctors too but I’m particularly interested in anyone from US on how they navigated the process from the US

My appreciation to all in advance


Dkowal

[benraycamp0]

There’s a few people on the Pudendal Hope Facebook group that have went to Bautrant and Bollens as well. I recommend joining the FB group and posting there too! You can search the FB group as well and you’ll find their posts

[dkowal]

Great thanks I will do that. Appreciate ut

[Violet M]

Hi D,

It's been a few years since I went to Bautrant so I can't answer everything about his current protocol but I can say something about my flight there. On the way there, we were able to get 3 seats across so that I could lie down with my head on a pillow in my husband's lap and I was pretty drugged up. It wasn't easy though. We stayed in the Aquabella Hotel near the hospital in Aix in Provence. On the way back to the US, there was one extra seat on the airplane and some kind people moved so that we could have an extra seat. I was pretty drugged up on the way home too. When we changed planes, the airline helped get me through the airport in a wheelchair. The problem now is that seating is even more crowded than it was back then, so ideally it would be good to buy an extra seat -- but that could be a financial hardship I'm sure.

Dr. Bautrant was amazing. He actually picked us up at the airport and he was very kind and understanding. When I saw him in the office and he did the clinical exam, he knew right away that I was entrapped at the ischial spine (a protrusion in the pelvic bone, not in the spine). The night before surgery, he came and talked with my husband and me in the hospital. He sat down and held my hand and was very kind as he talked to us. After surgery he came to the hotel to check on me. He also allowed me to watch PNE surgery on another patient several days after my surgery. He interviewed me on a French radio station because at the time it was a new thing that Americans were coming to France for PNE surgery. The real reason I think Dr. Bautrant is amazing is that I am still doing very well almost 20 years later. So in my opinion he is a brilliant surgeon but I am probably a little biased.

I don't know much about Dr. Bollens. I have heard from one retired US physician who had a successful surgery from him and had a very good experience but that's about all I can tell you. I think his story is at the following link: viewtopic.php?p=65760#p65760

Since your pain started after a laminectomy, are your physicians considering a possible spinal radiculopathy rather than pudendal nerve entrapment?
I think in order for PNE surgery to be successful, there needs to be a pretty clear indication that there is a likely entrapment at the site where the pudendal nerve is typically entrapped and where it can be released. What are your instincts telling you on what to do at this point?

Violet

[dkowal]

Thanks Violet. Dr. Bautrant would do my surgery in Paris if I decided to go forward. It was many years ago for you so I'm sure things changed some since then. I don't have a clear diagnosis. Spine surgeons have said they don't see any nerve compression/entrapment in spine that would be causing my issues. All gyn docs believe it's coming from spine. I had the laminectomy first and the symptoms came on suddenly 3 months after the surgery. A new MRI revealed 2 synovial cysts on my spine where the laminectomy was performed and my spine was out of alignment which is why I needed the fusion at L4,L5,S1. At the time spine docs did not think vaginal symptoms were a result of anything in the spine. Was also checked by my OBGYN who could find nothing wrong at the time. No one ever mentioned PN and I had never heard of it. I did so much research on my own and went back to a urogyn who thought my research and related symptoms were a very good observation that it could be pudendal neuralgia and he sent me for a block. I have had 3 blocks, all with only about 25-30% improvement. I have also had a caudal with no real impact, SI joint injections, no help, L2-L3 injection for groin pain, very little reduction in pain and the last one being the Ganglion of Impar. that injection gave 3 days of rectal pain relief and slightly in the perineum but after that all the symptoms came back and about a week after I started experiencing PGAD symptoms from the injection. Bautrant and Bollens seem to feel like from my symptoms and medical records I provided that there is entrapment but no one has suggested with a high confidence level of entrapment so I'm really torn but I am getting worse. I have been doing pelvic PT for 2 years with no improvement. I also have rectocele and enterocele now which is not helping things. My QL and paraspinals are like a rock and no one can get them to release for any length of time. My pelvis on the right is also rotated slightly posteriorly so perhaps that might be part of the problem but I would think that after 2 years of pelvic and back PT on and off and chiropractors that I would see some improvement but that hasn't worked nor have botox, MLS laser or shockwave therapy. It is a real dilemma whether or not to proceed.

[Violet M]

It is an agonizing decision you are faced with. It's especially difficult if you don't have a clear diagnosis. If you decide to go to Bautrant, I don't think he would do surgery if he does an exam and based on the exam doesn't feel you are entrapped. He sends patients back to the US without doing surgery sometimes, if he doesn't believe there is an entrapment. So, I think you would get an honest opinion from him, which is somewhat reassuring.

Violet