Degenerative Joint Disease – Surgery

Transcript

Several types of surgeries that are done for degenerative joint disease. The simplest is called a laminectomy and a laminectomy is a small hole drilled into the spine and cervical thoracic or lumbar spine. And pressure is removed from the nerves or spinal cord. Second type of surgery for DJD is a diskectomy. Diskectomy is where the disc is removed. And at times when the disc is removed, it can be replaced with a disc replacement such as in the neck. Or in other times, the disc is removed and no further surgery is done such as in the lumbar spine. Disc replacements can also be augmented, but fusion, fusion simply means the attachment of two bones to each other, using hardware. This is typically done with plates and screws, and again, fusions should not be undertaken unless there is instability of the spine or the surgeon foresees removing a substantial part of the spine and causing instability, him or herself. Disc replacements of the neck and the future disc replacement for the lumbar spine are increasingly becoming good options for patients with moderate or severe degenerative joint disease.