Dr Adriaan Liebenberg My Spine Cervical | Page 107

My Spine - Cervical
The patient's own bone is regarded as the gold-standard for this purpose.
However, this procedure requires an additional incision over the front of the
pelvic bone near the hip, with extra pain involved, to harvest the bone.
In some younger patients, after a simple disc removal, the space that is creat-
ed is simply left open to heal by itself. Scar tissue and bone will form in the
space and with time, the two vertebrae will usually grow together, forming a
spontaneous fusion.
A newer technique is to replace the disc that has been removed by an artificial
disc whereby movement in the neck is preserved at the level of the operation.
This retained movement is thought to protect the adjacent discs from early
degeneration of one or several discs, by avoiding the biomechanical stresses
that are placed on the other discs of the neck by the fusion. There are specif-
ic indications for this procedure and the long-term results are only now
becoming known and appear quite promising. See the chapter Cervical Disc
Arthroplasty.
Some progress on the less invasive surgery front has been made by endoscop-
ic surgery and percutaneous Nucleoplasty. Enquire from your specialist
whether these would be an option for you. You may also want to consult a
specialist that is proficient in these techniques as well as the usual open sur-
gery techniques.
When undergoing the normal operation, you will be lying on your back and
the specialist will be operating from the front. Your skin will be sterilised over
the front of your neck with a combination of iodine and an alcohol solution
and then the area will be covered with sterile drapes. A small incision will be
made either transversely or obliquely in the front of your neck and the tissues
will be carefully separated until the front of the spine is reached.
With the use of a microscope the damaged disc will be removed. In most
cases a fusion will be performed by placing a bone block, or an artificial spac-
er containing bone, into the space where the disc has been removed.
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