Spinal Fusion Surgery

Spinal fusion surgery is a medical procedure wherein two or more spinal vertebrae are permanently joined together to eliminate motion between them. This technique stabilizes the vertebral segments and relieves any pain they may have been causing.

The goal of spine fusion surgery is to treat discomfort that is thought to be caused by a moving segment of the spine. The spine’s bones grow together or fuse during lumbar fusion, preventing motion between the two vertebrae. Intervertebral disc and bone spur removal relieves pressure on the spinal nerves, which lessens pain.

Injuries or the ageing process may be the cause of the pain. Back, leg, or arm discomfort might result from the irregular movement between the vertebrae caused by an unstable spine. The spine is straightened and stabilized via spinal fusion, which also lessens discomfort and protects the spinal cord and nerves by maintaining the proper disc gap between the vertebrae.

Spinal fusion may relieve symptoms of many back conditions, including:

• Although vertebral fractures can be corrected without spinal fusion surgery, it is occasionally necessary to do the procedure if the fracture makes the spinal vertebrae unstable.
• Spinal abnormalities such as scoliosis and kyphosis
• Herniated discs and degenerative disc disease
• The vertebra sliding onto the vertebra below is known as spondylolisthesis. It results in limb numbness and excruciating back and leg pain.
• Additional factors include tumors, infections, spinal stenosis, and more.

When is Spinal Fusion Surgery Needed?

When previous non-surgical treatments, such as medication, physiotherapy, and injections, have failed to ease the patient’s back, leg, and arm pain due to excessive aberrant motion at a vertebral segment, spinal fusion surgery is performed.

In cases of Spondylolisthesis and degenerative disc degeneration, spinal fusion surgery is also performed (isthmic, degenerative or post-laminectomy spondylolisthesis).

A weak or unstable spine caused by an infection, a spinal tumor, fractures, scoliosis, or any other deformity should also be treated with spinal fusion surgery.

A healthy individual who can endure the procedure well and is otherwise in good physical shape makes a good candidate for inexpensive spinal fusion surgery in India.

A good candidate for spinal fusion surgery is one who is otherwise in good physical condition, and can tolerate the procedure well.

Different Types of Spinal Fusions

Different types of spinal fusion surgeries are commonly available, like:

Lumbar Spine Fusion Surgery

The goal of lumbar fusion surgery is to relieve the patient’s leg and hip pain that originates in the low back. There are numerous ways to perform lumbar fusion surgery, but each method uses a bone graft to fuse the two vertebrae and so stop motion at that region.

Various types of spinal fusion surgeries in India that IndiCure can assist you with include:

• Posterolateral gutter fusion involves accessing the spine through the back
• Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF/TLIF) involves accessing the spine through the back while the patient lies on his stomach. The procedure entails removing the disc between two vertebrae and inserting the bone graft in the space.
• Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is the same as TLIF or PLIF except that the spine is accessed from the front. The technique remains the same.
• Anterior/posterior spinal fusion involves accessing spine from back and front both
• Minimally invasive techniques involve fusions to be done with smaller incisions.

Bone Grafting

Bone grafts are necessary for all spinal fusion procedures to aid with fusion. Bone grafts promote bone healing, aid in the fusion of the vertebrae into a single, solid bone, and, in the case of larger bone grafts, even serve as a structural support. Autografts are grafts taken from a person’s own body. A bone bank is often used to obtain cadaver bone grafts, another type of graft.

Immobilization with braces, plates, rods and screws are used to stabilize the bone and for internal fixation which speeds up the healing process.

Multiple level Spinal Fusion Surgery

Because the patient does not experience any motion restriction following fusion at one level, lumbar spinal fusion surgery is most successful in problems affecting just one vertebral segment. Fusing two levels is a viable strategy to relieve pain if necessary. The remaining spinal joints may become too stressed from spinal fusion at more than two levels, which could result in pain at further levels. Only in extremely rare circumstances, like scoliosis and lumbar deformity, is three or more level fusion suggested.

Cervical Spine fusion surgery

In order to stabilize the neck after an accident and avoid vertebral fractures that could harm the spinal cord and result in paralysis, the cervical spinal bones are fused. Additionally, spinal stenosis, ruptured discs, infections, tumors, and other spinal abnormalities are treated by cervical spine fusion surgery.