Re: Cervical Fusion VS Non Fusion: Opinions please

I had minimally invasive surgery- discectomy without fusion for disc herniations at C5/6 and C6/7 16 months ago.

I'm no doctor, but I would hesitate having any type of surgery if you're not in significant pain. I exhausted all options before going under the knife. I did physical therapy, traction, chiro adjustments, epidurals, etc, all of which provided me adequate relief for awhile. I didn't undergo surgery until my pain-primarily in my right arm- became unbearable. In my case, I was told by several doctors that holding off on surgery wouldn't cause further damage in any way, that it really came down to my pain tolerance. Your condition may be a different matter.

I consider my surgery a huge success, and for me, I am very pleased that I chose a non fusion option. If you search the archives, you should be able to find two of my posts from nearly a year ago now- STILL LOVING NON FUSION and NON FUSION OPTION- to get a better idea of what I went through.

Let me say that I don't get on this message board very often any more, so I apologize in advance if I don't respond further. With it being the holidays, I had a little bit of free time to surf today...

Good luck

bw