When is Anterior Cervical Discectomy & Fusion used?
It is used when a disc, or the bone that the disc is attached to (the vertebra), causes compression to a nerve root or the spinal cord itself. This would cause a severe pain down the arm (if a nerve was compressed), or weakness of the arms and legs with some difficulty with balance or fine finger movements (if the cord is compressed). However, the pain down the arm is not always a pain; it may be numbness, weakness, a feeling “of insects crawling on the skin”, like an “electric shock” or a “searing pain”; in medical terms, a sensory or motor disturbance. Similarly the patient or doctors do not always notice compression of the cord immediately. It may simply be that the patient is told that they “walk like they are drunk” (because the balance control is lost), or they may start to avoid wearing shirts or ties (because the fine finger control is lost). Most people with nerve compression will settle quickly. If they don’t then a cervical fusion is an option. It relieves the compression of
