Arm and shoulder pain caused by a cervical herniated disc will most likely resolve itself over a period of weeks. If the pain is not going away, usually physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medicine are then attempted. If after 3 months of treatment your pain doesn’t go away you may need to start giving thought to cervical herniated disc surgery.

Cervical herniated disc surgery has a relatively high success rate and can be performed as a traditional open back procedure or the surgeon may employ newer techniques that make the surgery much less invasive. Minimally invasive surgery may reduce the amount of postoperative pain the patient feels as well as reduce the chance for complications to arise during and after the procedure.

Finding a surgeon with extensive training and years of experience should reduce the risk of failure and complications. Because not all surgeons are trained equally or have equal experience, putting percentages behind the national success rate is difficult; it varies from 45% all the way up to 90%.

Anterior Cervical Discectomy

An anterior cervical discectomy is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures for cervical spine conditions. A cervical discectomy is performed to relieve pressure from a nerve root by removing all or a portion of a damaged vertebral disc.

When performing a cervical discectomy to remove a damaged or herniated disc, the approach the surgeon takes is usually entering from the front of the patient’s neck. It is not as dangerous as it may sound; the surgeon will make an incision in the front of your neck (anterior) beside your trachea. The surgeon manipulates and pushes the muscles aside while protecting the arteries and nerves in your neck and gains access to the herniated disc.

When removing a disc from the cervical segment of the spine, instability may occur. An anterior spinal fusion is often performed alongside the discectomy to fix any stability issue that would otherwise leave the patient vulnerable to further injury.

Anterior Cervical Fusion

Cervical spinal fusion can be performed to fuse the vertebrae together to limit the motion that may otherwise cause damage. Anterior cervical fusion uses cages, inserts, and synthetic or harvested bone to achieve fusion of the vertebral bones.

You may be wondering where the bone used in the cervical fusion comes from. Most often the bone is either a piece of the hip bone harvested from the patient, or obtained from a bone bank, although some surgeons have begun using synthetic bone material. If the bone comes from a bone bank, it was harvested from an organ donor and stored under sterile conditions until needed for the operation. Bones harvested from donors are put through a rigorous testing procedure that is similar to that of blood transfusion. These tests help to reduce the risk of passing on diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis to the patient.