Did you know every year around 12000 spinal cord injuries occur in the US alone? And the cervical spine is one of the commonest sites that is involved in spinal injury.
Most people are concerned about the value of life after three-level cervical spinal fusion surgery. This is because a single-level cervical fusion does not affect neck mobility as much as a multilevel cervical fusion does. So, in short, their concern is valid.
As we know that the most prominent symptom of any injury is pain. And the only way to decrease the level of pain is to get a spinal fusion surgery as early as possible. This is why knowing about multilevel cervical fusion is important.
So, it’s time that we highlight the main points affecting life after three and four-level cervical fusion surgery.
Life After Three Level Cervical Fusion Surgery
None except your doctor can be sure about the impact on life after three-level cervical fusion surgery. It truly depends on how you take care of yourself after the cervical fusion.
However, the effect on neck mobility after spinal fusion is almost similar in all the patients. In fact, in single-level fusion, you might not even feel anything at all, but sadly that’s not the case with three-level cervical fusion.
Before we proceed with our discussion on how the three or four-level cervical fusion affects the quality of life, let’s first clear the concept of triple fusion neck surgery.
What Is a Triple Fusion Neck Surgery?
The procedure is more or less similar to a single-level spinal fusion, except that the multiple-level cervical fusion, as the name implies, involves multiple spinal levels.
However, in both procedures, the doctors decompress the compressed parts and stabilize the spine with a bony graft or artificially place the screws and hooks inside the vertebrae.
This will then help in the fusion of broken joints (if any), help resolve the tumors or bulging discs, or relieve pain and numbness due to nerve injury.
The Complications In Life After Three Level Cervical Fusion
The patients of three-level cervical fusion present with the following complaints:
Dysphagia
The term simply means difficulty in swallowing. It occurs in some patients after the fusion surgery.
As your pharynx is located in the neck region, it is apparent that swallowing food or even drinking water can cause slight to moderate pain during swallowing.
Moreover, the worst part is, it affects the diet of the affected patient. This is because every time the patient tries eating anything, the pain eventually stops him from swallowing resulting in poor health.
Restrictive Movements
Note that cervical fusion surgery has no major effect on daily activities. However, certain activities like showering, shaving, loading/unloading that involves too much spinal movement might become restricted.
As per the given data, the following is the affected percentage in the range of motion after cervical fusion surgery.
- 25% extension/flexion
- 25% lateral bending
- 14% rotation
Failed Fusion
A surgery resulting in non-union of bones is a common finding among people after cervical surgery.
It is commonly known as a failed back syndrome. The term pretty much gives it away. In this condition the bones fail to unite, hence resulting in instability of the vertebral joints causing pain even after the surgery.
Mind you, it affects around 52% of patients and there are many reasons for a failed fusion, for instance; loosening, or breaking of hardware.
Neck Pain
It’s not hard to understand the logic behind neck pain after the surgery along with neck immobility. On top of that, the pain also radiates down to the shoulders, which might become uncomfortable for the patients.
This is one reason that affects the work and quality of life after three-level cervical fusion in these patients.
However, oral pain killers, like narcotics, might help relieve the pain but due to their addictive nature, they are often avoided.
Severe Headache
Though uncommon, very few patients might get a leak in CSF because of a punctured site during the surgery. This will then lead to bleeding, hematoma, and infection.
Infections
Infections on the incision site are another complication and commonly occurs in patients who are careless of the wound site.
This means if you take proper care of hygiene this issue can be avoided.
Restrictions After Three-level Cervical Fusion
As we have seen that life after three-level cervical fusion surgery is not easy to spend, and it requires your utmost attention. So, your doctor will restrict you to a few things that will help you recover faster.
- Avoid moving your head forwards or backward.
- Avoid lifting more than 5 pounds. For example, lifting a gallon of milk is fine.
- No smoking.
- Avoid strenuous exercises and heavy chores like mowing, gardening, vacuuming.
- You won’t be allowed to travel in the initial days after multilevel cervical displacement.
- Try to mobilize your back little by little. And do not sit for long hours either.
Remember that in most patients, multilevel ACDF recovery time is of four to six weeks. However, you can shrink the healing period by following these recovery tips and avoid further complications.
FAQs
The cervical spine has seven levels in total. And depending on the site of injury you will get a cervical fusion of the affected levels.
The more levels are involved, the worse would be the quality of life after three-level cervical fusion surgery.
The life after three-level cervical fusion surgery resumes back to normal after a few weeks. But that would only be possible if you stay conscious during the first few weeks after cervical fusion surgery. Moreover, you must follow your doctor’s advice to avoid future complications.
Conclusion
All of you need to know the importance of multilevel cervical fusion after a neck injury. The injury can be of any source, but if it remains undiagnosed, it may lead to severe or irreversible consequences.
So it’s better to consult a doctor on time, get the fusion, and improve the quality of life after three-level cervical fusion surgery.