Cervical Osteophyte complex

@januaryjane
You have degenerative cervical myelopathy from what you describe as symptoms all r having osteophyte complex affecting spinal cord. This is os a spinal cord compression injury. I have this and now have some permanent injury due to delayed diagnosis and surgery. I have a congenitally narrow spinal canal, osteophyte complexes, degenerative disc disease, etc. I have had 2 ACDF surgeries (c5-c6 in 2022 and c6-c7 in 2025).

You need to get the osteophyte complex removed to relieve pressure from your spinal cord. I had the same symptoms as you. Degenerative cervical myelopathy can cause weakness in shoulders/arms/hands that affects ability to lift things, write legibly, causes you to drop things and have grip issues, can affect walking/stability and feel like legs are heavy and also affect bladder (control and retention issues). I had other symptoms like daily headaches, tinnitus, facial numbness, knots in shoulder blades, neck/shoulder pain, and some radiculopathy nerve pain in arms due to nerve compression.

I am just four days out From a ACDF Surgery it was a multilevel which was a bit tough to say the least.,, A six hour surgery. Dr’s had to get through tons of scar tissue to perform their procedure from old fusions over 10 years ago.. I was dropping things as well. I still am just a few days out, but it was too soon to tell but the shooting nerves pain that I had which were intermittent are gone, I had four different neurosurgeon consults. I did not use my prior surgeon who did the original ones +2 fusions in my lower back. We fortunate enough to have a husband wife team from John Hopkins Hospital that relocated to our area in Naples Florida, They performed the surgery in tandem. Jane good luck with your decision on moving forward. I know it’s a huge step and it’s a bit scary but it appears to be something that could help you. Good luck..

I also have an osteophyte complex at C5-C6 and C6-C7 with severe left and moderate right neuroforaminal stenosis. Two different top neurosurgeons in my area blew it off and said it wasn’t severe enough to be causing all my symptoms. I’m not convinced but I also don’t want to try to convince a surgeon to do surgery when they both felt it wasn’t necessary.

Sorry but it’s tough to offer advice in this situation. Many folks come out of surgeries like this worse off than they were before, even describing it as life changing in a negative way, others says it’s a life saver.

Hopefully a 2nd opinion will shed some light on your situation. It didn’t for me and at this point I hate to say it but I’m just worn out trying to find answers.

@rpr13
Did you see a neurologist for EMG/nerve conduction studies of upper and lower limbs to see how nerve communication to/through your muscles is functioning with your spine compression? If not, it is important to have this done. It should show if you have radiculopathy to arms/legs. If it comes back normal, you could still have spinal cord compression which does not show up on EMG/NCS.

Does your spinal cord show flattening/compression on the MRI? Physical exam, reflex testing, demonstration of walking, EMG/NCS, MRI, symptoms should help inform an orthopedic spine specialist of whether surgery to decompress spinal cord/nerve roots can help relieve some of your symptoms. Long term compression of spinal cord and nerve roots can cause permanent damage and dysfunction so it is not something you want to ignore/delay. I had to see 4 surgeons before getting properly diagnosed with degenerative cervical myelopathy spinal cord compression injury. It was affecting my ability to control my bladder and this is considered a severe stage. Delaying my ACDF surgery on c5-c6 would have caused further worsening of my symptoms. After my first surgery, many of my symptoms improved. Surgery is meant to stop the further progression of the damage. I had new compression at c6-c7 and ACDF surgery and it helped with some symptoms but I am still having some pain on one side, especially with certain head/neck movements.

I also had lumbar surgery on l3-l5 and wish I did it sooner. I was being told to delay but in hindsight, the severe stenosis at l4-l5 for 10+ years may have caused permanent nerve damage. My muscles/nerves in my hips/buttocks/hip flexors are weak and I have pain that makes standing up and going up/down stairs difficult. I don’t seem to have good muscle control and afraid I could fall. I’m not sure if the symphonies now are from permanent damage, scar tissue formation following surgery, injury of nerves during surgery or new compression. I don’t regret getting the surgery because I had pain/weakness/numbness from low back down to my feet and some of these symptoms improved after surgery. The surgeon needed to cut away a lot of bone to free my spinal cord/nerve roots before putting in disc spacers/hardware to help fuse. My L4 was slipping over my L5 so needed to be stabilized.

I know it can be exhausting to deal with the runaround. Don’t give up looking for an orthopedic spine specialist/surgeon who could look at your spine and give you options to relieve your symptoms. You may want to try an orthopedic spine specialist/surgeon over a neurosurgeon. They have similar training and experienced with surgery to decompress/stabilize vertebrae, remove osteophytes/lamina, etc. that are pressing on spinal cord/nerve roots and causing symptoms.

The three comments I read below the poster, are spot on! I feel I have the best surgeon in the world (as he did an amazing lumbar surgery for me!) but when we got to the cervical spine problem, I didn’t present in a way that made him feel confident. I had complications after surgery, which were due to the reality of what he found during my surgery. Even with the best surgeons, this can be a creative process. Your active participation in your recovery is going to be a huge part of this. I know people who had complete relief with their surgeries. Good for them! I have arthritis, degenerative conditions, and I was in an auto accident at eight years old, which nobody realized would affect me 60 years later! I suggest you try a MFR therapist. Deep my facial tissue release. With that release of my muscles pulling on my shoulders, neck and head. It informed me that I was indeed ready for surgery.. Like with all my five joint replacement surgeries, I am at the end of my rope physically the day. I’m wheeled into surgery just in the nick of time! But in my particular cervical spine surgery of which there were two one right after the other, I am still working on getting better after two years. this is a very individual experience and surgery unlike a hip replacement. It’s all going to depend on your many conditions going into surgery. This may sound scary, but it is honest and that’s what you want, right? I got my life back and I can do all the things again. I was locked out of because my neck couldn’t support the heavy bowling ball head anymore. However, some of my problems have to do with a lifetime of repetitive motion, my muscular problems, bad posture, which I was born with And other elements over, which I have no control. I lost some mobility in looking down and my left to right mobility is what it was before I went into surgery. In the first cervical spine surgery, where they only did the front it was magic as I could move my head Like I was 12 years old again. But my bones were soft and wouldn’t hold the minimal surgery so three weeks later I was back in surgery having a rod stuck in my back and bigger screws.
The best thing to do is look around educate yourself about your own health situation and what all the words mean so you understand your own body and then when you find the surgeon, who is your Prince charming you’ll know he’s the right one.
Yesterday, I played hooky and spent the entire day putting up Halloween decorations. Getting up on a ladder, taking things down from the rafters,reaching for hooks and slowly, methodically, transforming my house to delight myself with Halloween. This morning I woke up stiff and sore and slow. I was probably more scared that I wouldn’t be able to get Halloween up then I was of my spine surgery.
You didn’t say the extent of what the cervical surgery would be like if it’s just removing the osteophytes I absolutely believe you should go for it. It’s a simple procedure. I had it done on both my cervical spine and my lumbar spine. It brings great pain relief. So if they’re not suggesting The rods in the screws in the fusion, I suggest from what you described it would be a safe and effective option. Dropping a pot of scolding boiling water might be considered ared line.