Spinal surgery - cervical

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Vertebra, cervical (neck)

Bone graft harvest

Overview

Recovery

Risks

Spinal surgery - cervical

Alternative Names:

Cervical spinal surgery

Expectations after surgery:

With surgery on a single herniated disk, more than 90% of patients experience total or near-total relief from their symptoms.

More complex surgeries on multiple disks vary in outcome, depending on the technique and the particular case.

Spinal stenosis is more difficult to treat and results from this surgery are not as good as for disk excision. From 50% to 90% of patients can expect good to excellent results.

Convalescence:

The hospital stay is about 7 days. You will be encouraged to walk the first or second day after surgery to reduce the risk of blood clots (deep venous thrombosis).

Complete recovery takes about five weeks. Heavy work is not recommended until several months after surgery or not at all.

Review Date: 7/4/2004
Reviewed By: Andrew L. Chen, M.D., M.S., Steadman-Hawkins Sports Medicine Foundation, Vail, CO. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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