Most patients go home the day after surgery, but your surgeon will decide when you are ready for discharge. Your length of stay in the hospital will depend on the reason that you needed to have cervical spine surgery. Once this is complete, the muscles and soft tissues are put back into place, and the skin is closed with sutures, staples, skin glue or small surgical bandage strips. The less motion there is between the healing bones, the higher the chance of successful fusion. A fusion with instrumentation, or hardware, can hold the vertebrae in place allowing the bones to properly fuse. Eventually, this graft will fuse to the surrounding vertebrae to prevent abnormal painful motion of this area of the neck.Īt this time, your spine surgeon may choose to fix the bones in place with a standalone intervertebral device or a combination of metal screws, rods and plates. A bone graft is then placed between the vertebrae where the disc was originally. Alternatively, if undergoing an anterior surgery, your surgeon will remove the affected disc, which is between your vertebrae, as well as any arthritic areas. This is known as a posterior laminectomy. Before fusion takes place, the surgeon removes all or part of the lamina bone, takes out any disc fragments and eliminates any nearby bone spurs. Your surgeon may use small cutting instruments to carefully remove soft tissue near the spinal nerves. Some surgeons may also use a special surgical microscope during surgery to magnify the area on which he or she is operating. An X-ray is used in the operating room to ensure that the correct bone/disc(s) is operated upon. Your doctor will make a small incision in your neck to expose the correct area of the spine. Patients are placed on a special operating room bed that allows for optimal access to the neck and allows for obtaining X-Ray images of the neck to make sure that your operation is done safely. A breathing tube is inserted and used throughout the procedure. allograft - small piece of bone taken from a bone bankįor most cervical spine surgeries, patients are given general anesthesia to put them to sleep.autograft - small piece of bone taken from your own body, usually your pelvis or hip.Talk with your doctor about the specific approach that will best treat your problem. The type of fusion approach you will have is dependent on your symptoms and specific diagnosis. It involves the use of small screws and rods to stabilize the spine and ensure proper alignment. Posterior fusion is performed through the back of your neck.It involves the replacement of the intervertebral disc with a spacer secured with small screws, with or without a plate, to ensure proper alignment. Anterior fusion is performed through the front of your neck.
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