Posts Tagged "neck surgery complications"

Neck Surgery-What Can Go Wrong

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Causes, Neck Pain Essentials |

Neck surgery and what can go wrong

There are many forms of neck surgery that are performed these days and as always neck surgery should be considered a last resort. Once you read what is involved in each of the operations and the complications that may occur I hope you will make a concerted effort to use the advice I have written about to keep your necks and their discs in good health. You just don’t want to be going down the surgical road if you can help it. And you can normally help it.

If surgery is recommended it’s generally for these reasons

·        To decrease the pressure from nerve roots caused by a herniated disc or bone spur

·        To stop the movement between two vertebrae or a spinal segment such as in severe degenerative disc disease

·        And to remove pressure from the spinal cord as in the cases of cervical myelopathy and spinal stenosis

As usual you should become empowered with as much information as you can when it comes to someone using a scalpel on you so I have written this article to give you an overview of the various types of surgeries and the problems that can arise.

You could have to have decompression surgery or fusion surgery. Many times these two operations are performed together because the decompression surgery can make the area unstable thus a fusion is performed as well. Depending on your type of problem the surgeon may decide to do the operation by entering the front of the neck or by entering from the back of the neck.

At times the surgeons use bone grafts which can either by taken from your hip when they do the surgery of they can get bone grafts from bone banks.

The anterior spinal fusion is much more common and they may remove the disc and place bone in between the vertebrae where the disc was. Then the vertebrae and the new bone graft fuse together over time creating a spinal fusion.

The posterior spinal fusion is where they enter from the back of the neck and the bone is placed on the back side of the vertebrae. This type of surgery is rarely done and most commonly only for fractures of the spine.

You may also have plates and screws placed in your neck to hold the area still so that the bones can fuse together.

A discectomy is used very commonly these days and this is where they remove the disc. They remove the disc that is impinging on the nerve root to relieve the pressure. Here they make a cut beside your windpipe and move the muscles out of the way to get to the vertebrae. Then they get an x-ray done to find out which disc is the problematic one and remove it all the way back to the spinal column. If there are any bone spurs on the vertebrae they will remove those as well. Of course, extra special care is needed not to damage the spinal cord. Then generally they will fuse the vertebrae as mentioned above.

You may have been recommended to have a laminectomy. This will normally be give if your diagnosis is from spinal stenosis. They need to make the spinal canal larger and remove any bone spurs that may be pressing on the nerves. Just as is the case with discectomy meaning ‘removal of the disc’, laminectomy means ‘removal of the lamina’. However, surgeons don’t tend to do complete laminectomies if they can help it because the spine tends to tilt forwards and can also cause other problems like facet joint instabilities further down the track. Another preferred option, is to cut only one side of the lamina and bend it open allowing more space for the spinal cord and spinal nerves.

There is another way to help people with spinal stenosis ad myelopathies and that is to remove the front of the spinal canal. (The lamina is the rear part of the spine). What they may do here is remove the large part of several vertebrae including the discs in between, then they fill it with bone again, surgically hold it together with plates and screws and you then will have an apparatus to keep you from moving your neck so that the bones can fuse. This is called a corpectomy.

The complications

Now if all that isn’t scary enough, what then are the complications? After all, surgery is invasive and let’s face it, things can go wrong. I want to stress once again that this should be your last resort because apart from the complications, there is no guarantee that you are going to be pain free after the operations.

You need to speak at length with your surgeon so that you are well aware of the problems that can arise because when they do occur they generally can be serious.

First of all, as aforesaid, you may have the surgery and still have the pain. This may mean back on the operating table again for more surgery.

As with any operation you need anesthesia and this in itself poses risks. You will probably be put under general anesthesia (which means being put to sleep) and there are an array of complications that can occur including dying! This is a complication you don’t want.

There is the risk of infection. As with any surgery when you open someone up you have the risk of having them become infected. If your bone becomes infected you may need more operations for them to drain it.

You have the risk of having your blood vessels damaged because they have to work very closely to your blood vessels and arteries that travel through your neck and into your brain. The carotid and jugular are right next to where they work. It is possible to do damage to these. It’s not likely that this will happen but its worth knowing that it’s a possibility.

You could have nerve damage. The nerves to your vocal cords are also close by and they could become damaged which could lead to your voice being hoarse although it will normally recover unless it is too badly damaged.

There is the risk of having spinal cord damage because they have to work so closely to it although again it is highly unlikely but a possibility.

One of the complications that can happen more commonly is that the graft displaces and then you may need another operation to replace it.

And finally there is the problem of non-union. This is where your fusion doesn’t fuse. If you have no pain the surgeon may just leave it but if the fusion hasn’t occurred and you are in pain he may want you to have a second operation.

So you see that there are many possible complications when it comes to neck surgery just like any other surgical procedure. Some of these above are extremely unlikely to happen but its better that you know before you have the surgery so that you can make a sound and knowledgeable decision based on all the factors.

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