Spine Surgery Procedures

Spinal surgery can be one of the most important procedures a person can undergo. Spinal surgery can relieve pain, and give back movement to those who thought they had lost the ability to move properly forever. Spinal surgery does not need to be invasive, and there are a variety of procedures available.

Discectomy

If you have a ruptured or herniated disc, this is the most common surgery. A ruptured disc occurs when the outer wall of the disc becomes weakened due to injury or disease. When a disc ruptures or herniates, the material from the disc can push against nerve tissue, causing extreme pain. Discectomy is performed under anesthesia and will require a one day recovery period at the hospital, followed by care at home. The doctor will have you lie face down on the operating table. He will then cut over the affected disc and remove tissue from the disc to see the affected area. Once he can view the area, he will remove the section of the disc that has swollen out into the nerves.

Spinal Fusion

Spinal fusion is performed when movement of two discs together at the joint causes extreme pain. This is sometimes due to a breakdown of cartilage between the bone. The spine has a series of discs, called the vertebrae, which allow you to bend, twist and turn. When spinal fusion is performed, two discs are fused together using a bone graft. This bone graft will make the two vertebrae grow together into one bone. The bone graft will likely be taken from the patient's own hip or from a donor body. After surgery, patients may have limited movement in the area the bone graft was placed, but most patients experience little in the way of movement deterioration.

Laminotomy

Laminotomy is a decompression procedure like discectomy. A laminotomy accesses the spinal canal from the back of the spine. An incision is made in the middle of the neck or the back, where body mass is moved so that the lamina is exposed. The lamina are pieces of bone that cover the nerves. For disc hernias, a single lamina is removed to access the nerve endings causing the pain. The root of the nerve is held away from the disc herniation so the protruding disc section can be removed.