Triple ACDF

I had C3-C6 done a little over a year ago. The operation and recovery were easy, but my surgery did NOT help my pain at all. I believe it was necessary, however, to take pressure directly off of my spinal cord. I hope your experience will be better.

@upstatephil Hello and I want to welcome you to Connect! The good news about having lower cervical levels fused is that you should be able to turn your head with a lesser degree of compromise. Most of head turning is C1 & C2, with a little help from C3 & C4.

I don't think your surgery will be more complicated, it will just take a little longer to do 3 levels. Removing and replacing discs with cages or bone spacers is a pretty standard procedure, and the surgeon may seed the fusion with bone spurs that are removed during surgery. Do you have compression of spinal nerves in the foramen at those levels? That would add a bit more work if the foramen need to be cleared of arthritic bone.

Did your surgeon show you the imaging and explain why 3 levels need to be decompressed? They should justify the need. Sometimes an adjacent disc isn't perfect, and they add that into a planned surgery for another level which gives them a bigger insurance payment. I hope that isn't the case, but I have heard of this with another patient. She questioned him on the extra level he was adding, and he backed off and only fused one level. With fusions, the extra stress on the neck afterward can cause a domino effect that makes other levels go bad, so "less is more" is better, or a more conservative approach if a fusion isn't really needed at an adjacent level.

My fusion was C5/C6 done at Mayo and the recovery from that wasn't too bad. It took about 3 months to heal and for the fusion to solidify. The incision heals in about 6 weeks. I was in a neck brace all of that time because I opted for no hardware, and stayed immobile until fused. After that I had to rehab with physical therapy to get strength back. I didn't do well on pain meds after surgery, so I didn't take any. I found that I could handle the healing pain OK without drugs and avoided constipation from pain meds that away. I just rested and slept a lot. The nerve pain caused by the spine problem was gone when I woke up from anesthesia, and I just had the pain from the surgical path. My surgery was done before permanent damage had occurred from spinal cord compression. I didn't have compression of nerves at the spinal nerve roots.

Hopefully some other members will join the conversation. Good luck with your surgery!

Jennifer

I had a c4-7 ACDF on Feb 14th this year. I am 3+ months post and have been very happy with recovery and significant improvements in range of motion. With the right doc at the right facility...you should be fine. best of luck.

You need a change in support groups!!!!

@upstatephil I just read your post. How did you do? How do you feel? I was told I need C3-C7 fused and am curious to learn about others' experiences.

Good evening. I am now almost five months post. I would set myself at 95%+ recovered with an expected full recovery in a few more months. Just FYI - I'm happy to share my experiences and give advice...but know what I've learned is everyone has a different situation. Different problem to fix (even if it has the same name), people have different levels of pre-surgical physical conditioning, different ages, surgeries are at different hospitals, surgeons are different...So I'm very willing to share but my results may not be your results. Does that make sense? If knowing all that - you still would benefit from my sharing - I'm 100% happy to do so. I'm not trying to be negative - just realistic. Let me know how I can help!

I've had two cervical fusions at C5-7 and C3-4. Do you know the level of actual stenosis you have of the spinal cord. This would involve measurement of the compression of the thecal sac which surrounds the spinal cord itself. Sometimes surgeons may elect to fuse discs that will likely cause problems down the road vs only doing those that are significantly impaired at present. For me, having everything fused except C4/5 will likely mean more surgery in the future as the other fusions will stress 4/5. For me, the more vertebrae that are fused, the more complicated the surgery is and the length of the surgery times. The number of hours. in surgery and reported complications are seen in a quote by ScienceDirect.."For instance, a positive association between the duration of surgical procedures and complications such as surgical site infection (SSI), venous thromboembolism (VTE), bleeding, hematoma formation, and necrosis has been reported in prospective and retrospective studies across various surgical procedures." I'm not implying this is the case for you, just wanting to share this knowledge for people who may get crazy recommendations for extended fusions. Also, know who your surgeon is and any reported claims against them. For me, I had a bad experience with my first surgery that I won't go into here, but my third surgery went well. Know that you will likely get muscle knots and spasm in your back and scalpular regions. This is from taping the body down to the surgical table and can be really distressing for those not prepared for it. You may also have some difficulty swallowing as well. Straws are an essential post-surgery as well as every kind of soft food you like in both warm and cold versions. In my second surgery I came home feeling no effects of surgery and had problems even sleeping I was so amped up. I learned that was caused by steroids they give you likely to repress inflammation and pain. Once that wears off, the pain meds are needed. I started Metamucil and Sienna 2 days before surgery to counter the effects of constipation and I pooped the day after lol. I don't believe they will discharge you without a BM. Buy large cool pacs prior to surgery and freeze them before you leave. These are another essential to have. You might also have problems lifting your arms up, so bring a button down shirt or the like. You may also not be able to. look down to hook a bra if you're in a brace. You may want to wear an undershirt instead. I wish you the best for a successful surgery. You'll be amazed how fast the surgical incision is healed.