Spinal Cord Injury Continue

It’s been a while since my last post about spinal cord injury which a friend of mine experienced few 2 months back. Few weeks later I get to know that my company’s manager also having the same back problem as my friend, but instead of sports injury he get it from the amount of stress he had in his job. His situation is more serious compared with my friend. Having degenerative disk disease at the vertebral level of C6 & C7, his condition is more worst that he can barely turn his head to left or right without his body turning together. He can’t touch his left shoulder with his right hand because it stuck halfway in the middle. I’ve asked him about his condition on whether is he in pain? He just laughs and said that he is in pain even now, he just got used to the pain, since he has been having the pain problem since year 2002.
 To my surprised I asked again on why he doesn’t go for surgery. He then laugh again and answered I am mentally not prepared yet, it is a very tough decision. I’m getting confused about his statement on why on earth that he already bear the pain for so many years and yet he still mentally not prepared yet. All these years he only goes for physiotherapy, which only helps a few to reduce the pain. I do my research online on how the surgery is performed.

Surgical Procedure for Cervical Disc Replacement

The standard surgical procedure for a disc replacement is an anterior (from the front) approach to the cervical spine. This surgical approach is the same as that presently used for a discectomy and fusion operation. The affected disc is completely removed including any impinging disc fragments or osteophytes (bone spurs). The disc space is distracted (jacked up) to its prior normal disc height to help decompress (relieve pressure) on the nerves. This is important because when a disc becomes worn out, it will typically shrink in its height, which can also contribute to the pinching on the nerves in the neck.

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At this point, using x-rays or fluoroscopy, the artificial disc device is implanted into the prepared disc space. Postoperatively, the patient typically can go home within 24 to 48 hours with minimal activity limitations.

Potential Risks and Complications

The potential complications with an artificial device are at least similar to an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and may include:

·         Infection

·         Blood loss

·         Nerve injury or paralysis

·         Need for further surgery

Although these complications can be severe, they are very rare occurrences. Below shows the video from spine-health.com on disk replacement back surgery.

Total Disc Replacement Surgery Video

In addition, the artificial disc does theoretically have some of the same potential complications associated with total hip and knee arthroplasty. An arthroplasty is a mechanical device and by the laws of physics will wear out over long periods of time. That time period remains to be defined for total disc replacement. In addition, small particle debris may react with the body. Laboratory and animal studies for some of the devices have shown that after simulating ten years of wear, only minimal disc wear occurs and the materials appear to be well tolerated over time.

After looking on the video and explanation, I find it quite complicated and if anything goes wrong, there goes the rest of your life. No wonder my manager keep it on hold for so many years and wait till the pain is unbearable then only he will do the surgery. Heard that he would probably do the surgery this year or early next year, wish him good luck and will post his progress after the surgery.