Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement: Preserving Neck Motion After Surgery

There are many roads to neck pain, which affects between 30% and 50% of people around the world in any given year, and damaged and deteriorating discs are a common reason for such pain.

If you find yourself dealing with disc-related neck pain and conservative efforts have failed to remedy the issue, it may be time to explore spine surgery. Perhaps the usual spinal fusion and discectomy procedure isn’t the best choice, though, especially if you want to maintain the all-important range of motion in your neck.

At our practice, Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and our team have been early and enthusiastic adopters of artificial disc replacement, which offers some great benefits for dealing with chronic neck pain. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits, including preserving neck motion.

Issues with spinal fusion and discectomy

To describe why artificial disc replacement can be a better option, we’re going to discuss the other alternative first, and its downfalls. More specifically, we’re referring to spinal fusion and discectomy procedures, which are commonly used to address chronic spine pain due to damaged discs.

The goal of a discectomy is to relieve the nerve compression that’s leading to your discomfort. Once the disc is removed, the two vertebrae are fused, creating one longer vertebral segment. Unfortunately, this longer bony structure can be problematic. 

For starters, with fewer vertebrae, you lose mobility and range of motion in your neck, which is tricky as your head relies on your neck to help it move around to see, hear, and smell.

Second, when a larger vertebral segment is created through fusion, it places more pressure on the vertebrae and discs above and below the fused bones. As a result, many people deal with adjacent segment disease after a spinal fusion and discectomy procedure — up to 36% according to research. 

This issue can land you right back where you started — with neck pain that might require another surgery.

The benefits of artificial disc replacement

Although discectomy and fusion procedures can be effective, you aren’t all that keen about the potential complications. Neither are we, which is why we often recommend artificial disc replacement.

Through artificial disc replacement, our goal is threefold:

1. Stabilize your neck
2. Alleviate the nerve compression that’s causing your pain
3. Preserve the range of motion in your neck

During this procedure, Dr. Mesiwala removes the damaged disc in your neck and, as the name suggests, replaces it with an artificial version. This artificial disc acts much like your original disc, separating the vertebrae and allowing movement between the vertebrae that allows you to turn and move your head.

While the approach for an anterior cervical disc fusion and disc replacement is the same, the goal is also identical - to remove the pressure on the nerves going down to your arms and the spinal cord. The major differences lie in the implant, and with an artificial disc, you maintain motion. This translates to a faster recovery and ultimately a return to your active lifestyle in a more expeditious manner. 

Surgery is now, more often than ever,  being performed in outpatient surgical centers around the Southern California region with the utmost precision and care. Patients undergo a procedure that takes approximately 30-40 minutes per level, and are up and walking within a couple of hours, and then go home soon after. 

Even better, Dr. Mesiwala can perform this procedure using minimally invasive surgical techniques that greatly reduce surgical risks and speed up your recovery. Dr. Mesiwala takes a personalized approach to each and every one of his patients to ensure that they are treated effectively and compassionately. 

And when you get to the other side of your neck surgery, you’ll be rewarded with a pain-free neck that can still swivel and move well.

If you’d like to see whether you’re a good candidate for cervical artificial disc replacement, we invite you to contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule a consultation with Dr. Mesiwala.