Cervical spine surgery focuses on the part of the spine that passes through the neck. It can treat existing damage to the spinal cord and the nerves around it, as well as strengthen the spine to help prevent further damage. Often, the surgery involves two types of procedures--decompression, to relieve pressure on injured nerves, and fusion, to stabilize the spine. Surgeons may operate on the cervical spine either from the front or the back.
Anterior Cervical Decompression Surgery
Spinal discs that have shifted or ruptured out of place can put pressure on the nerve roots inside the neck that connect to nerves in other places throughout the body. That can cause pain and numbness in the areas affected by those nerves, such as the shoulders and arms. Anterior cervical decompression focuses on relieving nerve pressure by removing the discs that have pushed on nerve roots. Surgeons cut and extract all of the injured discs from the cervical spine by working along the posterior longitudinal ligament from front to back.
Anterior Cervical Spinal Fusion Surgery
Anterior cervical spinal fusion surgery's goal is to fuse one vertebra to another. Doing so can help prevent the spine from falling into deformity, eliminate motion that could cause pain at a specific point in the spine and maintain the right amount of space for the spinal cord and nerve roots. Surgeons use a bone graft to promote the fusion. Depending on each patient's choice, surgeons can use any of three kinds of bone grafts: autograft bone--bone from a patient's own hip; allograft bone--donor bone from a cadaver; and a bone graft substitute, such as a metal or plastic plate. It's best to use a patient's own bone, says the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, since that option is more likely than the others to promote a successful fusion.
Anterior Cervical Corpectomy Spine Surgery
If disease encompasses more than just the disc space, surgeons may remove one or more entire vertebral body rather than just the disc spaces at either end. This type of surgery, called anterior cervical corpectomy, focuses on completely decompressing the cervical canal by removing every vertebral body that is putting pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots. Afterward, surgeons must reconstruct the affected area using some sort of fusion technique, according to Spine Health.com.
Posterior Cervical Decompression Surgery
Posterior cervical decompression surgery's goal is the same as anterior cervical decompression--to relieve nerve pressure from discs that have pushed on nerve roots. But in a posterior surgery in which a surgeon operates from the back of a patient's neck, the injured discs aren't completely removed as they often are in anterior cervical decompression surgery, says Spine Health.com. Also, according to SpineHealth.com, spinal fusion to create more space for nerve roots can't be done in conjunction with a posterior surgery, like it can with an anterior surgery.
Posterior Cervical Laminectomy Surgery
This surgery's goal is to create more space for the cervical spinal cord by removing the lamina and spinous process within the neck. As a result, says Spine Health.com, the spinal cord floats backward and has more room to move.
