Anterior Cervical Diskectomy
Cervical spine showing nerve compression from Wikipedia 2009
Anterior cervical diskectomy is an operation performed on the upper spine (neck) to relieve pressure on one or more nerve roots, or on the spinal cord. The procedure is explained by the words anterior (front), cervical (neck), and diskectomy (cutting out the disc).
ACD is a surgery used as neck and arm pain, among other symptoms, may occur when an intervertebral disc herniates. This happens, either suddenly with injury or slowly over time, when some of the disc’s jelly-like center (the nucleus pulposus) bulges or ruptures through its tough, fibrous outer ring (the annulus fibrosus) and presses on a nerve. When a disc ruptures in the cervical spine, it puts pressure on one or more nerve roots (often called nerve root compression) or on the spinal cord. This pressure causes symptoms in the neck, arms, and even legs. Further pressure may be caused by rough edges of bone, called bone spurs, that naturally build up around some herniated discs. If at all possible it is best to not have this done unless it is pressing on a nerve or the spinal cord, if it is a surgeon will often advise the surgery to avoid further damage to the nerve or spinal cord.
In this operation, the cervical spine is reached through a small incision in the front of your neck. After the soft tissues of the neck are separated, the intervertebral disc and bone spurs are removed. The space left between the vertebrae may be left open or filled with a small piece of bone. In time the vertebrae may fuse, or join together.
If used, the pre-formed bone graft may be obtained from a bone bank. It will not be rejected by your body, because it is avascular (contains no blood cells) or artificial bone protien can be used. In some circumstances, or if your surgeon prefers, the bone graft might instead be removed from your own hip through a second incision.
Anterior cervical diskectomy is not the only solution. A minimally invasive surgery can be done which leaves almost no scar. This link will lead to where you can see a four minute movie of the procedureThe results are best with single level sugery. There are also procedures which are used to patch tears. Autologous stem cell therapy (using your own stem cells) and platelet rich plasma or PRP can be used to fix tears which can be a major source of pain because of the leakage of fluid which irritates the surrounding tissue.
Some people have artificial disks inserted , rather than a diskectomy or fusion. A great place to get information on this option is the ADR support community
