Spinal fusion is a procedure that joins two bones (vertebrae) in the spinal column together to eliminate pain caused by movement. This, and any other surgery, is a major procedure and should only be used after other treatment options for low back pain and sciatica have been tried and proven to be unsuccessful.
Most of the time when a patient has a laminectomy and disc removal, a spinal fusion is not done. If a spinal fusion is to be performed, the adjacent vertebral bones are joined together with bone harvested either from the patient or a bone donor bank. Additional internal devices, such as metal rods and pins, may be used to provide further stability. The actual "fusing" of the vertebral segments occurs as the body stimulates new bone growth between the vertebrae over the course of the healing period, which can last 3 to 6 months or even longer.
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Updated Disketomy section on 6/7/2007 according to the following study, as cited by http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php : Peul WC, van Houwelingen HC, van den Hout WB, et al. Surgery versus prolonged conservative treatment for sciatica. N Engl J Med. 2007;356:2245-2256.
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Spinal fusion is a procedure that joins two bones (vertebrae) in the spinal column together to eliminate pain caused by movement. This, and any other surgery, is a major procedure and should only be used after other treatment options for low back pain and sciatica have been tried and proven to be unsuccessful.
Most of the time when a patient has a laminectomy and disc removal, a spinal fusion is not done. If a spinal fusion is to be performed, the adjacent vertebral bones are joined together with bone harvested either from the patient or a bone donor bank. Additional internal devices, such as metal rods and pins, may be used to provide further stability. The actual "fusing" of the vertebral segments occurs as the body stimulates new bone growth between the vertebrae over the course of the healing period, which can last 3 to 6 months or even longer.
