Spine surgery is an elective surgical treatment applied for relieving pain (referred to as a radiculopathy or sciatica) or body weakness. There are two types of the spine surgery, namely decompression and fusion surgery.
Decompression surgery aims usually to relieve the pain resulting from nerve root impingement. Decompression surgery involves the removal of a small portion of the bone over the nerve root (laminectomy) and/or disc material under the nerve root (microdiscectomy). Nerve root pressure is resulted from herniated disc or spinal stenosis, especially, in the cervical and/or lumbar region.
Fusion surgery aims to stop or relieve the pain at a painful motion segment in the spine. The pain usually results from degenerative disc disease or spondylolisthesis. The procedure involves the fixation of the spinal bones using a bone graft or instrumentation to stop the motion at a painful vertebra segment which involves more than two vertebras.
