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What is spinal fusion surgery
By immobilizing a painful vertebral segment through spinal fusion surgery, the pain that is generated through the join should be decreased. Spinal fusion surgery requires adding a bone graph to an area of the spine that causes the grafted bone to grow between the two vertebrae stopping motion at that spinal segment.
Once conservative treatments have been followed for the following conditions and there is no noticeable improvement in the pain and symptoms the patient is feeling, cervical spinal fusion surgery may help by immobilizing the vertebral segment of the spine.
- Degenerative disc disease
- Degenerative or postlaminectomy spondylolisthesis
Spinal fusion surgery can be used to treat other conditions as well, such as weak or unstable spines that may be caused by infections, tumors, deformities, factures and possibly scoliosis.
How does spinal fusion surgery work
Each level of the spine has space for a disc in the front and a pair of facet joints in the back of it. A motion segment is defined by the pieces of these levels working together permitting multiple degrees of motion. When this motion becomes painful and conservative treatments fail spinal fusion surgery is performed to remove motion that causes the pain within the segment. Spinal fusion of L4-L5 is an example of a one-level spinal fusion.
Bone grafts are used in spinal fusion surgery with the outcome being that two vertebral bodies will grow together into one bone. During the spinal fusion surgery a bone graft can be taken from the patient’s hip, known as an autograft bone, or harvested from cadaver bone, known as an allograft bone. Substitutes such as synthetic bone grafts are already in development. One of these called morphogenic proteins, used to help the body create bone, is currently being used in some spinal fusion surgery procedures.
Spinal fusion surgery will be most effective in patients with conditions that only require spinal fusion of one vertebral segment. After spinal fusion surgery of one segment most patients will not notice any limitation in their motion.
If necessary and the patients pain is not responding to conservative treatments, fusing two segments of the spine through spinal fusion surgery may become a reasonable option. Because to much of the spines normal motion is restricted when more than two segments of the spine are fused through spinal fusion surgery, pain relief is not likely and more likely compounded in a three or more level spinal fusion. In some cases such as scoliosis and lumbar deformity three level spinal fusion surgery may be considered for more than just pain relief.
Spinal fusion surgery is considered major surgery and the spinal fusion procedure usually takes several hours to complete.