Is Disc Replacement a Good Solution for Your Chronic Neck Pain?

If you’re reading this, it probably comes as no surprise that millions of Americans are familiar with the debilitating effects of neck pain. In fact, in any three-month period in the United States, about 15% of adults are struggling with neck pain.

If neck pain has brought you here looking for answers, you’ve come to the right place. At our practice, neurosurgeon Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and his team often combine biomedical engineering to solve complicated spine conditions and one of the byproducts of this work is artificial disc replacement surgery.

Here’s a look at how artificial disc replacement is helping many patients to wave goodbye to chronic neck pain and whether it might do the same for you.

That pain in your neck

The foundation of your neck is made up of seven cervical vertebrae that stretch from the base of your skull to your upper back. These bony structures are separated by intervertebral discs that provide shock absorption and flexibility in your neck, allowing you to swivel your head in different directions.

This extensive range of motion also means that there’s more pressure and wear-and-tear on the discs in your neck (and lower back) than in other areas, such as your upper and mid back. This heavier workload, over time, can lead to degeneration in your discs and in your cervical spine that can compress sensitive nerve roots, leaving you with pain.

Not to mention, disc-related neck pain is also often accompanied by radiculopathy — a condition in which the nerve compression leads to symptoms that radiate down the length of the nerve and into your arms and hands. As a result, your neck pain can become a much bigger problem.

Artificial disc replacement for chronic neck pain

If your chronic neck pain is due to degenerative changes in your cervical spine that’s leading to nerve compression, an artificial disc may be a great option moving forward.

As the name suggests, with this procedure, Dr. Mesiwala removes your damaged and diseased disc and replaces it with an artificial one. This replacement disc allows you to maintain your range of motion and also re-creates more space in your spine for nerve fibers.

Dr. Mesiwala has been an early adopter and innovator in the world of artificial disc replacement, and we view this approach as a better alternative to the traditional decompression and fusion procedure. With decompression and fusion, the diseased disc is removed, and the two vertebrae are fused together, creating one long bony structure. 

Though effective in the short-term, the potential drawbacks of fusion include less range of motion and adjacent disc disease. The longer bony structure that’s created can place more pressure on the discs on either end, leaving many patients with more nerve compression and neck pain down the road.

With artificial cervical disc replacement, we can avoid these outcomes by preserving the structural integrity of the spine. In fact, one study revealed that cervical disc replacement improved neck disability in almost 80% of patients. As impressive, the study went on to report that reoperation rates are about a third of those associated with cervical decompression and fusion.

Is cervical disc replacement right for you?

If your neck pain is due to problems with your cervical disc and nerve compression issues, artificial disc replacement is certainly an option you should consider.

It’s impossible for us to say here what treatment is right for you, but we can say that we’ve helped many patients to regain pain-free use of their neck through artificial disc replacement. 

We can also say that you should only consider this procedure with experts in the field, and Dr. Mesiwala is not only an expert, but a leading pioneer in this area. 

With that in mind, your next step is to sit down with Dr. Mesiwala to discuss your options and your goals. To get that ball rolling, please contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule an appointment.