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Anyone who's had Cervical spinal compression surgery?

Posted by msmith49 @msmith49, Jul 20, 2024

I have to have spinal cord compression surgery in September. I have to have C4-5 and C5-6 removed with something like cages replacing the discs and fusion of a plate and screws. I am terrified and I cannot find anyone that has had this surgery. I don't know what to expect and I feel so lost. I have to have a 4 inch incision in the front of my neck and wear a neck brace 24/7 for 6 weeks. I have had two total knee replacements that were excruciating pain. Anyone who has had this done please tell me what to expect. I need to be prepared for the pain so please honestly how bad is it going to be? Thank you

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rico2 | @rico2 | Nov 9, 2025

I have had an ACDF 5/6 in 2021 for numbness and pain in left arm and into fingers and loss of function with the arm and hand. Also diagnosed with cervical spondylosis with central canal stenosis from C3-C7 due to various levels of disc and osteophyte complexes among other things.

My ACDF surgery went well although very long as they were supposed to do two levels but because of the length of doing one they decided not to do the other one - which is coming back to haunt me.

My only problems that really bother me from the frontal surgery is that I cannot swallow anything every now and then like taking my medications which sometimes refuse to go down sometimes. Bread and water helps a lot to get meds down. Also if I talk for a few minutes I go horse and my voice starts to go away.

Surgery always had its trade offs my neurosurgeon told me. Rarely is an operation done without some side effects supposedly. Do I regret having the surgery? No I don’t as the few lingering problems are small compared to having use of my left arm.

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joannehart | @joannehart | Nov 9, 2025

I hope a neurosurgeon is doing your surgery. Over 10 years ago I had a C 5-6-7 fusion anterior route with one cage during a 3.5 hour surgery. I had minimal pain after and wore a neck brace for one month except for showering or sleeping. What a relief it was to get rid of the severe neck pain. I could not do anything except for walks for one month. Hope you surgery is successful

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tinkerdee | @tinkerdee | Sep 24 11:32am
In reply to @upstatephil "@msmith49 - Good morning and please be prepared for a long answer. I have a lot..." + (show)
Profile picture for Phil, Alumni Mentor @upstatephil

@msmith49 - Good morning and please be prepared for a long answer. I have a lot of perspective that might help you work through your not-uncommon pre-surgical angst.

I had what's called an ACDF at C4-7. That was 18 months ago. Today - all my cervical-related symptoms are gone, I feel 99.5% fully recovered, my frontal scar is nearly invisible, and I'm so happy I had that procedure done. Now the details.

The "A" means they come in through the front. Seems counter-intuitive but it works well. The "C" means cervical area. The "D" means discectomy, and the
"F" means fusion. Let's talk about the D and the F.

If your cervical spine is damaged, collapsing, significantly mis-aligned, or changing due to advanced arthritis - one result is your disks between some vertebrae literally break-down and need to be replaced. No amount of PT or drugs will repair that damage once it's occurred. Surgery is the only option.

The neurosurgeon (not an orthopedic surgeon) literally removes the old damaged disks and inserts new disks that the doctors call a cage. Each cage is custom-sized to work for you and mine are perforated to better allow new bone growth to bind the disks to my existing spinal column.

Now the "F". When putting in new cages over several levels of the cervical spine - the spine in that area is weakened until new bone growth allows the patient to return to normal life. There is a period post-surgery where the cervical spine needs extra protection. For me - we decided to install "hardware" which is two plates that screw together the four levels of vertebrae. These two plates assure me of adequate neck stability during the initial six-week recovery period and well beyond. I wore a plastic neck brace (no big deal and not worth worrying about that! You become accustomed to the brace very quickly, I found) for six weeks. NOTE: Sometimes patients don't want the hardware installed and in that case they need to wear a neck brace for a much longer period while new bone growth occurs.

I have not had knee replacements but I have had lower lumbar surgery and I can compare the two by saying the cervical work was a "4" and the lumbar work was a "10".

Please continue to express your concerns. That process can be helpful in undertanding what to expect. What other perspectives can I share?

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@upstatephil

Thank you for being so informative. I’m in the same situation my spine is moderately closed, I have tingling hands, my legs have weakened, sometimes I feel a swaying feeling when I walk or just standing. My orthopedic is a surgeon and says I need surgery and that it’ll only get worse and a wheelchair in my future and maybe paralysis. I do not want this to happen of course, I’m scared. Why a neurosurgeon? And how did you find one? Did you get second or even third opinions?
Thank you!!
Tinkerdee

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