@eviggiano I'm glad to meet you. I am a Mayo spine surgery patient and I can tell you that the level of care at Mayo is phenomenal. If you have appointments lined up there, you'll be in good hands.

I also had to decide between ortho and neuro and I consulted 6 surgeons total of both specialties. In general, I felt that the neuros were more interested in the pain symptoms, and the orthos just moved right to here's what we can do for you. Of course, there are excellent surgeons in both camps, and my Mayo surgeon was a Neuro, but also with Ortho fellowship training in spine deformity, so he had the best of both worlds. Spine deformity is a condition where he may also call in an ortho spine surgeon to assist with a difficult surgical case.

You have to choose the surgeon who fits your needs the best and who's area of interest matches your condition. Pain is different for everyone, but when you decide to get onboard with a surgeon and go through a procedure, think of it as healing pain after surgery. I had cervical stenosis, and I found I could tolerate pain after surgery without drugs. The drugs nauseated me and constipated me. I just rested and relaxed. Lumbar spine surgery is a bit more involved because the spine is deeper in the body than in the neck.

We drove 5 hours to Mayo, and I did fine in the car on the way home. We were told to stop every 2 hours and walk to avoid blood clots which are a risk after surgery.

When I was researching surgeons, I always looked at any medical literature they published and for any videos they were in with medical information. One surgeon I saw who was supposed to be excellent was a consult for a pro sports team, so I thought he must be good, but he wouldn't take time to answer any of my questions and deferred that to his PA. I was not comfortable with that. When you get on a table in the operating room, you have to trust the surgeon with your life, and I need a doctor who will explain fully to put me at ease. The sports pro surgeon kept sending me quality of life surveys for 2 years sniffing for business, but no one at his office called me to follow up. He did about 10 surgeries a day at a half hour a piece, and I didn't want to be on his assembly line.

Here is a discussion where you can connect with other members talking about spinal stenosis surgeries.

– Severe spinal stenosis: Would you do surgery?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/severe-spinal-stenosis/

Here are a couple of links to information you may find helpful on spinal stenosis care at Mayo Clinic:

– Cervical spinal stenosis – Mayo Clinic: https://medprofvideos.mayoclinic.org/videos/cervical-spinal-stenosis

– Mayo Clinic Q and A: Treating cervical spinal stenosis: https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-treating-cervical-spinal-stenosis/

Jennifer

@eviggiano My situation was very similar. I had both a spine and neuro surgeon look at my images and both recommended the exact same surgery. I picked the spine surgeon based on other personal recommendations. To make a long story short, I had a C3-C7 ACDF done one year ago. It has NOT helped me at all, but the surgery and recovery were not bad. I did have a temporary palsy in my right arm immediately after surgery, which was quite concerning, but with PT it did get better. I do NOT think that my surgeon did anything wrong, in fact I am sure I needed to have the pressure taken off of my spinal cord. It is just my bilateral arm and hand pain that has not been helped. I wish you luck!

I would first pursue minimally invasive surgery beginning with MILD treatment (85% of stenosis comes from inflamed ligament I have read)..and/or interspinous spacer that opens up the canal. Both are done locally under mild sedation and very quick. They are also low risk.

Do both by having one assist the other. It done all the time and there’s even a special code docs use to bill as assistant to surgeon.