Your movement is extremely restrained, the continuous pain in your neck, back and arms will not go away; the whiplash injury you sustained in a car accident has changed your life. If nothing you have tried so far has improved your situation, you might be a candidate for cervical fusion. To understand how cervical fusion can help you and eliminate your pain, it is essential to understand the basic parts of the spinal column. The spinal column is made up of 24 vertebrae or small circular pieces of bone that line up, one on top of the other. The different sections of the column are given specific names to help identification. The uppermost vertebrae are called the cervical vertebrae and are found in the neck. In between each vertebra is a cushiony disc that absorbs shock and keeps the bones separated from each other. In the back of each of the vertebrae is a small hole which allows the nerve column known as the spinal cord to run through, protected from outside forces. When these discs are damaged, the bones rub against each other and against the many nerves in the spine, all which cause severe pain. If a patient suffers a sudden injury that damages the back or neck, these discs can become pushed out of place. This is often painful because they cannot do their job of cushioning the bones if they are out of position. Naturally over time, these liquid-filled discs become dehydrated and less inflated. The vertebrae will also become dangerously and painfully close to each other. There is the possibility that the encasement of the disc may rupture and cause it to become no longer useful. Another possibility for pain is the development of bone spurs. These are sharp pieces of bone that grow off the vertebrae and themselves rub the other bone or aggravate the nerves. Cervical fusion can help solve any of these problems. To relieve the pain, a surgeon creates a small incision in the patient's neck, just under the chin. He then would remove the disc that is causing problems, usually because it has ruptured. A piece of bone is then inserted to fill the space that the disc once occupied, so that the height of the spinal column and the distance between vertebrae remains the same. This piece of bone either comes from the patient's hip bone, the iliac crest, or a bone bank. Both options have their benefits and obstacles. The fusion of the bones is slightly more successful in cases of an autogeneous bone graft (coming from the patient's own body). However, this requires an additional step to the surgical process, resulting in more pain and recovery time. An allograft (a piece of bone from a bone bank) reduces the healing time, but might not fuse as well with the other bones. If all goes correctly, the bones will fuse together into one larger piece of bone, reducing the possibility of painful situations because the bones can no longer rub together or pinch the nerves.
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