Anyone had a craniocervical fusion for cervical pannus?

@suking I did some searching and found this comment from another member with cervical pannus. I have not found anyone talking about surgery for this condition.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/964529/
There is also this comment from another patient, but they have not been on Connect for a long time.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/784668/
Jennifer

Hi @suking, I'm tagging @debbiepinkston59 and @leigh17 to bring them into this discussion.

In the meantime, can you share a bit more about your situation. It must be frightening to face the possibility of paralysis. May I ask what led to your having cervical pannus? Did you have trauma or deal with rheumatoid arthritis?

Hi, thanks for reaching out. My son has Retroflexed odontoid with pannus. It seems that the pannus grows due to a lot of movement in the area (CCI) and his surgeon said the fusion surgery will correct the instability and over time the pannus will disappear as it is not “rubbing” and forming the callus type growth.
Another option is an odontoidectomy but most surgeons nowadays feel that fusion works best in the long term. And an odontoidectomy can cause further instability.

Hello. I had an occipital to C4 fusion for panus done 3 months ago. It was my 4th cervical (neck) surgery. I have osteoarthritis. The surgery was fine. No complications and I went home in 3 days. I had to wear a neck brace 24/7 for 12 weeks. I get it off this week but I’ve been removing it for a couple hours at a time at home to try to strengthen my neck. I only had 25 degrees of movement in the neck prior to the surgery. Now it is zero degrees. My body is adapting. I’m good with driving- I go to PT about a mile from home in a Tesla where I use the self driving mode. I can turn right and left at the waist but if the streets aren’t aligned and there extra turning it gets tricky. I just started driving this week. So I will post if I find any other issues. I had severe paninis with neuropathy so I didn’t have any options. My surgeon has done my last 3 surgeries so I trust home with my life.

@my3sunz from what I see this procedure is not common so please feel free to reach out to me if you like