Fusion Articles

Treating Lumbar Spinal Stenosis with Vertebral Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Spinal stenosis, or the narrowing of the spinal canal, is most common in the lumbar (lower back) region. This is because the lumbar vertebrae are instrumental in bending and twisting movements, and because the lower back bears a large portion of the weight of the upper body. All that twisting and bending...

Lumbar Fusion Recovery
Monday, August, 30 2010
Lumbar fusion recovery should not be rushed. There’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” while the body recovers from the trauma of open back surgery and grows accustomed to the metal or plastic hardware inserted into the lower back. While patience is a virtue following spinal fusion surgery, one of the...

Lumbar Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Lumbar fusion is a surgical procedure designed to alleviate lower back pain through the immobilization of two or more vertebral segments. The lumbar region of the spine, particularly the L4-L5 level, is the most common location of spinal conditions – including herniated disc, bulging disc and spinal...

Endoscopic Laminotomy vs. Traditional Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Spinal stenosis patients who have exhausted their conservative treatment regimen without appreciable relief from back or neck pain might begin to consider surgery as an option. A conventional surgical method for treating spinal stenosis is a laminectomy and vertebral fusion. Before agreeing to undergo...

Alternatives to Treating Herniated Discs with Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
More than 90 percent of patients affected by symptoms associated with herniated discs find significant relief without resorting to spinal fusion surgery. In fact, a disc herniation, which occurs when the gel-like nucleus of an intervertebral disc extrudes into the spinal canal, might not exhibit symptoms...

Understanding the Risks of Herniated Disc Surgery with Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Herniated disc surgery with spinal fusion is an invasive surgical technique traditionally used to alleviate symptoms associated with nerve compression. These symptoms include pain, tingling, numbness and muscle weakness, and they usually can be successfully managed using conservative treatments such...

Spinal Instrumentation Used for Disc Herniation Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Disc herniation fusion surgery usually involves the complete removal of one or more intervertebral discs, followed by the insertion of bone graft material and metallic or plastic spinal instrumentation to immobilize the surrounding vertebrae. It’s a complicated, very invasive procedure that requires...

What to Consider Before Undergoing Degenerative Disc Disease Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Patients who suffer from symptoms associated with degenerative disc disease have a lot to think about as they consider spinal fusion. Symptoms that develop from nerve compression can include pain, tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness. However, it’s important not to allow chronic pain to rob you...

Potential Complications during Cervical Spinal Stenosis Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
About 90 percent of patients who suffer from cervical spinal stenosis – a narrowing of the spinal canal in the cervical (neck) region – can manage their symptoms using conservative treatment, such as pain medication or physical therapy. For the other 10 percent, the traditional surgical option has...

Recuperating After Bulging Disc Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
Don’t expect to go mountain climbing in the days or weeks immediately following bulging disc fusion surgery. Although the decision to have two or more of your vertebrae fused together is based on your understandably urgent desire to eliminate chronic neck or back pain, the healing process often takes...

Conservative Herniated Disc Treatments without Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
For patients suffering from a herniated disc, fusion surgery and other spine procedures aren’t often required. In fact, for most people, a steady course of conservative treatment over several weeks is all that is required to sufficiently alleviate their back or neck pain and get them back to their...

Lumbar Disc Herniation and Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
If you are suffering from a herniated disc and conservative treatments have proven ineffective, you may be considering your other treatment options. In general, if you’ve been diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation, you’re left to choose between massively invasive spine fusion surgery and an outpatient...

What to Expect after Lumbar Disc Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
As with any major surgery, the recovery period following lumbar disc fusion surgery can be challenging. Lumbar fusion is a massively intrusive spine operation that requires a large incision and the introduction of bone grafts and hardware to stabilize the lumbar spine in the lower back. While the ultimate...

Lumbar Nerve Decompression and Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
Lumbar nerve decompression and fusion surgery is the traditional surgical treatment for alleviating chronic, persistent back pain. During this invasive operation, a surgical team enters the spine in the lower back and removes the source of nerve compression, most commonly an intervertebral disc, that...

Managing Chronic Neck Pain after Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
In the days following an open cervical spine procedure, continued chronic neck pain is common. Fusion surgery is a major operation that can leave the patient in significant discomfort as the body slowly begins the healing process. This is no surprise when you consider that spine fusion entails a large...

Chronic Back Pain Relief with Fusion – Is This Possible?
Monday, August, 30 2010
If you are suffering from chronic back pain, you may have considered fusion surgery as a potential treatment option. Before you consent to invasive open spine surgery, however, it is important that you understand the risks and downsides associated with the procedure. Clearly, the decision to undergo...

Alleviating Cervical Spine Pain Without Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
In years past, if you were experiencing persistent cervical spine pain, fusion was your last good option after more conservative treatments had failed. Yet, because spine fusion is a major operation with serious potential drawbacks, far too many people were put in the unenviable position of weighing...

Back Surgery Recovery after Spine Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Back surgery recovery after spine fusion can be quite an arduous process. Spine fusion is an extremely invasive operation wherein spine surgeons decompress nerves and fuse two or more vertebrae together, with the goal of eliminating pain and stabilizing the spine. The problem is that recovery and rehabilitation...

Back Pain after Spine Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Back pain after spine fusion surgery is an all-too-common reality for many people. The decision to undergo spine surgery is difficult enough on its own, so it can be particularly frustrating to be in pain despite the operation. So what are the causes of post-operative pain, and what are your other options? h2....

Back Pain Relief without Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
In years past, if a person suffered from debilitating back pain from a herniated intervertebral disc, their final hope for pain relief came from spinal fusion. During this massively invasive open spine procedure, a team of surgeons would remove the problematic disc and fuse the affected vertebrae together...

Treating a Lumbar Herniated Disc with Spinal Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Although you may be desperate to rid yourself of the debilitating symptoms that can accompany a torn disc in the lower back, you should remember that a lumbar herniated disc rarely requires spinal fusion surgery. A herniated disc is simply a disc that has become thin and weak due to the natural degenerative...

Understanding Lumbar Back Surgery and Spinal Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
A fairly common type of lumbar back surgery is spinal fusion. This procedure seeks to join two or more vertebrae in the lower back through the osteoblastic, or bone growth, process. Spinal fusion is an attempt to restabilize a weakened or injured spine. Fusion utilizes bone grafts, taken from either...

A Herniated Cervical Disc Does Not Always Require Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Although the pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness that can accompany a herniated cervical disc can be detrimental to your quality of life, spinal fusion should not be your first treatment option. In fact, spinal fusion involves such an invasive level of surgery that it is a leading cause of Failed...

Fusion of the Spine
Monday, August, 30 2010
While fusion of the spine is a fairly common surgical procedure, it should by no means be your first treatment option. Always keep in mind that an accurate diagnosis and a regimen of conservative, non-operative pain relief methods should be attempted before surgery even becomes a consideration. When...

Failed Lumbar Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Failed lumbar fusion is a fairly common occurrence. When you compound the invasive nature of the procedure with the grafting, muscle trauma, and hardware that are involved, it’s no wonder that your body may react negatively to the stress of the operation. In fact, a condition referred to as Failed...

Cervical Spine Injury Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
As serious as a cervical spine injury can be, fusion is not always the best treatment method. If you are suffering from chronic neck pain due to trauma, overuse, a degenerative condition, or any other type of anatomical abnormality, you should consider all of your options before deciding on any type...

Cervical Spine Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
A cervical spine fusion is an operation that focuses on the seven vertebrae in the neck and upper back. Each of these vertebrae (except for the first two) is separated by a spongy intervertebral disc that absorbs shock, connects vertebral bodies, and provides flexibility to the spine. However, over time...

Anterior Spinal Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Anterior spinal fusion is a surgical procedure that accesses the spine through an incision in the front of the body (usually on one side of the abdomen) and uses bone grafts and hardware to stabilize a weakened spine by fusing two or more vertebrae together. Ideally, the surgery will immobilize the damaged...

Anterior Posterior Lumbar Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
An anterior posterior lumbar fusion surgery means that the surgeon accesses the lower portion of the back both anteriorly (through the front of the body) and posteriorly (through the back of the body). This technique is used when a patient has severe spinal degeneration or deformity and maximum spine...

Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion
Monday, August, 30 2010
Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is a surgery aimed at removing the source of neural compression in the spine and immobilizing a section of the back so that pain triggered by movement (mechanical pain) is eliminated. The process might be clearer if we break down its parts. “Anterior”, meaning...

What is Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion?
Monday, August, 30 2010
Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) is a form of spinal fusion that may provide greater stability and faster healing than posterolateral fusion procedures. It involves accessing a trouble spot in the spine via the removal of portions of the vertebrae and inserting bone graft materials closer to...

For Chronic Lower Back Pain, Fusion Is Not the Only Alternative
Monday, August, 30 2010
There are several common surgeries for chronic lower back pain. Fusion of the vertebrae is one of them, but this is a highly invasive procedure that, in recent years, has fallen under criticism for its efficacy. Given the nature of the surgery, it behooves someone with chronic lower back pain to consider...

Should I Undergo a Thoracic Discectomy and Fusion Surgery?
Monday, August, 30 2010
A discectomy and fusion operation is nearly always the last possible treatment your doctor will consider to rid you of chronic back or neck pain. The highly invasive nature of the surgery and the unpredictability of the outcome make such a procedure far less desirable—not to mention more risky—than...

Intervertebral Disc Surgery – Fusion Facts
Monday, August, 30 2010
If your doctor has recommended intervertebral disc surgery that includes the fusion of vertebrae, you owe it to yourself to consider your options carefully. This can be difficult, given that you have no doubt endured constant back or neck pain over the past several months, not to mention the frustration...

Do Cervical Discectomy and Fusion of Vertebrae Go Hand In Hand?
Monday, August, 30 2010
If you’ve been suffering from continuous neck pain for several months, and the treatment program prescribed by your doctor has not brought about any improvement, your doctor may recommend surgery, such as a cervical discectomy and fusion of the affected vertebrae. Whether or not to undergo this procedure...

Cervical Disc Herniation and Fusion Surgery
Monday, August, 30 2010
You’ve had chronic neck pain for months. Your doctor has prescribed a conservative treatment plan including pain medication, specialized exercises, and the use of warm and cold compresses. Maybe you’ve even gone to see a chiropractor or undergone acupuncture, but no matter what you’ve tried, your...

When Cervical Vertebrae Develop Bone Spurs, Fusion Surgery Is Not the Only Option
Monday, August, 30 2010
Chronic neck pain can seriously impact your quality of life—not to mention your ability to work or fulfill other responsibilities. Some doctors (and patients) are far too quick to assume that open spine surgery is the only cure for this malady. In fact, such surgery should only be a last resort due...

What Is Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Surgery?
Monday, August, 30 2010
: One common open back surgical procedure is the discectomy and fusion: an operation in which the surgeon removes all or part of a damaged intervertebral disc, replaces it with a bone graft, and stabilizes the spine with metal plates or braces that he or she attaches to the vertebrae with bone screws....

What Should I Expect From My Recovery After Spinal Fusion Surgery?
Monday, August, 30 2010
Any invasive medical procedure is going to require a significant recovery period. Skin and muscles have been cut and stretched; internal organs have been pushed aside; parts of the anatomy have been permanently altered—there is simply no way around the fact that the patient must undergo a lengthy period...

What Can I Expect After Lumbar Fusion Surgery?
Monday, August, 30 2010
Lumbar fusion is a surgical procedure that can address certain spinal conditions by replacing one or more damaged intervertebral discs with bone grafts and hardware. The procedure aims to ease chronic pain resulting from nerve compression in a couple ways: (1) by removing bone and disc material impinging...