What is neck surgery for cervical spondylosis? Is it safe
Posterior cervical decompression & lateral mass screw fixation surgery for neck pain in cervical spine stenosis
It is not surprising that people have high expectations for rapid relief from neck pain and a quick return to work after undergoing neck surgery for cervical spine stenosis or spondylosis. We have consistently achieved the best outcomes for our patients who undergo posterior cervical decompression & lateral mass screw fixation spine surgery for cervical spondylosis. These favourable results are made possible by our use of state-of-the-art surgical techniques and our adherence to strict post-operative activity guidelines that we provide to our patients.
Do patient feel pain during this surgery?
No, posterior cervical decompression & lateral mass screw fixation is done under general anaesthesia. Neither you feel pain nor you have any memory of the surgery.
How long the spine surgery at neck lasts?
The duration of surgery is 3 to 4 hours. Patient is made to lie on a special table with nose facing the floor. Head is fixed & stabilised with fixator. A small skin opening is made on the back of neck. Extent or length of skin opening is decided by intra operative x ray we take. Skin, soft tissue & muscles are retracted to reach the neck bones
How do we insert lateral mass screw into neck bones? Is it safe?
We make sure the screws are placed in bone & not in the spine with the use of intra-operative c arm, neuro monitoring & neuro navigation.
Steps of screw insertion
Make an opening in neck bone with electric drill
Widen bone opening with hand held drill
Trajectory is confirmed with wire like probe. One should feel hard bone all around the hole ( ( if soft then its injuring the spinal nerve)
A titanium screw is inserted with continuous intra operative C arm
We put 4-6 screws based on Mri image findings
How we remove compression from spinal cord? How we avoid injuring spine during surgery? Is it safe?
The posterior cervical decompression of cervical spinal cord is made safer by use of microscope & neuro-monitoring.
Microscope magnifies the small hair like spinal cord to big rope like structure. It also provides intense light at depth. Neuro- monitoring provides real time feed back about spinal nerve integrity during spine surgery.
Whole procedure is performed under microscope vision. First, thick bones are reduced to eggshell thickness with the help of electric drill. We use wire like small micro instruments to separate bone from underlying spinal cord. Bleeding is controlled with fibrillar web & bipolar cautery. Finally bone is elevated form underlying white spinal cord. The decompression is confirmed when we see freely pulsatile spinal cord. Then rods are fixed to screws. Adequate positioning of screw is confirmed with c arm.
Skin is closed with absorbable suture, so there will be minimal scar on the back of neck.
When can patient walk after spine surgery for cervical spondylosis? How long is the hospital stay?
Patient walks on same day after spine surgery. Hospital stay is short. Patient will be discharged within 2 days after spine surgery. Patient can sit, stand or walk after spine surgery but should wear cervical collar all the time for 10 weeks.