Spine fusion surgery is done along with other kind of spine surgery. Its purpose is to join individual vertebrae together within the spine. Looking at our spine, the spinal column consists of individual vertebrae which are on top with each other. In between these vertebrae is a soft cushion called disc. The disc spaces lets the bones bend allowing you to bend forward or arch backward.
When there is problem with the disc space or the vertebrae, doctors usually suggest spine fusion but having spine fusion means you lose movement on that part of the spine or the spine that is affected but eliminates the source of your problem.
Spinal Fusion Surgery Complications
Just like any other spinal surgery, spine fusion surgery has possible complications too. Fortunately spinal fusion surgery is rare but if it happens the symptoms can include anesthetic complications, bleeding, infection, and nerve damage. In rare cases, loss of sensation in the legs or loss bladder or bowel control can also happen.
However there is one common risk for all modern spine fusion surgery and that is failure to relieve pain even after the surgery. This result is known as failed back surgery syndrome. Another risk that you may have to face is pseudoarthrosis where the vertebrae may fail to join or fuse together. This often occurs in about five to ten percent of spine fusion surgeries.
From 2002, Food and Drug Administration have approved the use of Bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP along with spinal fusion surgery. In fact it was use for about twenty-five percent of all spinal fusions in United States alone from 2002 to 2006. It showed that the use of BMP has raised the percentage of complications in anterior cervical fusions and not only that it also showed greater hospital charges in all fusion categories (Journal of the American Medical Association 2009).