What is a spinal fusion surgery?

A welding process, spinal fusion is a small surgical procedure that helps in correcting the issues with the small bones in the spinal cord. It will help reduce and heal the pain by fusing all the bones of the vertebrae into one solid bone, thereby eliminating the painful motion of the spine segments.

You will go in for this surgery when movement of the vertebral segments is the source of your back pain. This can be done only when your doctor points out the exact cause of your pain as the movement of the vertebral segments. If the doctor diagnoses that you are suffering from spinal instability, a curvature or severe degeneration of one or more of disks, he may suggest for spinal fusion surgery. This surgery may relieve you from various back problems like degenerative disk disease, scoliosis, fractured vertebra, tumor, infection in bones and a herniated disk. Spinal fusion surgery is based on the theory that if the movement of the painful spine segments is arrested, then you can be relieved from the pain.

Several different techniques are involved in spinal fusion surgery. Many of the surgical procedures require the use of a type of bone material called a bone graft to fuse the vertebrae. They use screws, rods or a cage to keep your spine stable while healing is done by the bone graft.

Spinal fusion surgery can be done through your abdomen, sides, back or from the front of the spine. Sometimes, depending on the position and the level of pain, a combination of all these procedures is also done. Making a small opening next to your tailbone is also done as a procedure to do the spinal fusion surgery. However, so far, none of the processes has been proven to be better than the other procedure.

Depending on the intensity of the pain and situation of the vertebrae, the results of the spinal surgery vary from person to person. It can be very effective in some cases, will not be of any use in some instances or partially useful in some cases. It may be several months or even a year before you can recover fully. Meanwhile, you have to take proper movement, reposition, how to walk about, and move about while healing is taking place.