About Lumbar Fusion Surgery
For most spine fusion surgeries, patients are given general anesthesia to put them to sleep.
Patients are placed on a special operating room bed that allows for optimal access to the spine, room for the surgeon to work and helps greatly reduce the potential for blood loss.
Your doctor will make a precise incision in your back to expose the correct area of the spine. If minimally invasive spine fusion is being performed, two incisions may need to be made, one on either side of the spine. An X-ray called fluoroscopy is used in the operating room to ensure the correct bone/disc(s) is operated upon. Some spine surgeons may also use a special surgical microscope during surgery to magnify the area they are operating upon, if necessary. Depending on the needs of your surgery your surgeon may use various specialized robotic and/or navigation devices to assist with your surgery.
Your spine surgeon may use small cutting instruments to carefully remove soft tissue near the spinal nerves. Before fusion takes place, the surgeon removes all or part of the lamina, takes out any disc fragments and eliminates any nearby bone spurs (laminectomy). Next, your surgeon will remove the affected (vertebral) disc, which is the cushion between your vertebrae, as well as any arthritic areas. A cage with bone graft is then placed between the vertebrae where the disc was removed. Eventually, this graft will fuse to the surrounding vertebrae to prevent abnormal motion of the area of the spine.
Depending on the approach for your procedure, you may then require a plate with or without rods and screws to stabilize your spine. The less motion there is between the healing bones, the higher the chance of successful fusion. Instrumentation has increased the success rate of spinal fusions considerably.
Once this is complete, the muscles and soft tissue are allowed to return to their natural position and are secured with sutures. The skin is closed with sutures, staples, skin glue or small surgical bandage strips.