SPINAL PROCEDURES
Cervical Laminectomy
What is a cervical laminectomy?
The aim of a laminectomy is two-fold: firstly to increase the space for the spinal cord (by removing some lamina and spinal processes from the back of the spinal canal) so as to decrease the pressure on it, and secondly to prevent any spinal cord damage from worsening while maintaining spinal stability, motion and alignment.
In degenerative spinal stenosis, any posterior disc protrusion, bone spurs or osteophytes from the vertebral bodies and facet joints, buckling or calcification of the spinal ligaments, can compress the spinal cord. Furthermore, people who are born with a narrow spinal canal, tend to get degenerative spinal stenosis symptoms earlier in life (the 40s to 50s).
Pressure on the spinal cord can also damage it. Myelopathy can cause pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in the arms or legs, and can affect the patients’ use of hands, ability to walk, and bowel and bladder functioning. While a laminectomy increases the size of the spinal canal – and usually reduces the progression of the symptoms – a fusion of the adjacent vertebrae is also sometimes performed to stabilize the region of the laminectomy.
A laminectomy is considered when there is persisting pain or weakness, that is clearly due to spinal cord compression, and that has not responded to conservative treatment. If there is a bowel or bladder dysfunction, difficulty walking, severe muscle weakness, or severe pain that is not controlled by strong pain relievers, immediate surgery to prevent permanent spinal cord or nerve damage may also be recommended.
Non-surgical alternatives
- Acupuncture
- Hydrotherapy
- Hot and cold pads
- Modifying activity levels to include:
- Aerobic exercise, walking, cycling and swimming
- Strength and flexibility training
- Pain relieving medications
- Weight loss
Surgical alternatives
- Steroid and local anaesthetic injections
- Disc replacement surgery, or arthroplasty
No Smoking
Smoking damages every part of your body and decreases the change of a successful procedure. If you smoke, you should stop now.
Before the procedure
- Your doctor will complete a medical exam to ensure that you are in good general health before continuing with the operation.
- You will be advised when to stop any medications that will increase your risk of bleeding, including aspirin, anti-inflammatories, vitamin E, and some herbal remedies such as chamomile, gingko and fish oil, among others.
- You may be admitted the day of, or the day before, your procedure.
- Don’t eat or drink anything 6 hours before the procedure.
- Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing and leave all jewellery at home.
- An intravenous line will be inserted into a vein in your arm for ease of fluid administration.
- You may be given a sedative to make you drowsy before being given your anaesthetic.
- You will be given a general anaesthetic to put you to sleep.
- Let your doctor know if you develop a cold, fever or flu-like symptoms before your operation.
The procedure
The patient lies on her front and her neck is cleaned. An incision is made in the middle of the neck and the overlying muscles are moved to the side. Using X-ray imaging, the surgeon confirms the correct vertebrae for the procedure. Strips of bone and ligament will be removed from each side of the lamina. The remaining connecting tissue will be removed. The lamina and soft tissues will be removed to decompress the spinal cord. The muscles will be replaced and the wound will be closed with sutures.
Post-procedure
- The procedure will take a couple of hours and you should be able to get out of bed after 2 hours.
- You may spend 1 or 2 nights in the intensive care unit before being transferred to your ward.
- You can expect to spend up to 5 nights in hospital.
- A urinary catheter will be removed after a day or two.
- A drainage tube may be placed in the wound. This will be removed after a couple of days.
- Your bowels may not open for a few days after the procedure, so use your pain medication, muscle relaxers and laxatives as directed.
- Feelings of pins and needles decrease immediately post-op, but there may be persisting symptoms.
- Headaches and some pain at the operation site can be expected. This can be controlled with oral medication and usually decreases over the first 2 weeks.
- Neck X-rays are sometimes taken a couple of days after the procedure.
- You may need to use a soft cervical collar or neck brace.
- Avoid bending, twisting, lifting or any other sudden movements.
- Don’t lift anything heavier than a bottle of milk for 4 to 6 weeks.
- You should be safe to drive in a few weeks.
- Most people can resume light work by 4 weeks and heavier work or sports by three months.
- Your doctor may recommend a daily exercise programme. A physical therapist will guide you through your programme.
- 40% of patients have no further change in their myelopathy after cervical laminectomy.
- 50% of patients have an improvement of their myelopathy.
- 10% of patients have worsening of their myelopathy.
- It’s difficult to determine how much permanent damage has been done to the spinal cord before the procedure. Some damage may resolve when the compression is removed. The best results occur in early cases of myelopathy and patients who are wheelchair bound before the laminectomy usually remain so after the procedure.
- If a foraminotomy is also done to relieve compression of a spinal nerve in the intervertebral foramen, its pins and needles usually begin to improve immediately, whereas muscle weakness may take several months to recover, and numbness is slow to recover and may persist.
- There is often some residual neck pain after the laminectomy from pre-existing degenerative disease elsewhere in the neck.
Wound care
- The wound must be checked twice a day. If you notice any redness, swelling, green or yellow discharge, or opening of the wound, contact your GP immediately and call your surgeon.
- If you have small bandages on your incision, it’s important to keep these dry. Once they start peeling off, you may remove them (typically after 1 week). All external sutures will be removed in 1 to 2 weeks.
- Keep the wound dry. While you may shower, avoid bathing, swimming or using creams for a week.
- The incision site may be gently cleaned using soap and water. Rub gently and avoid using perfumed soaps.
- Have your wound reviewed by your GP a week after surgery.
- An appointment with your surgeon will be booked 6 weeks after the procedure.
On-going care
Despite having surgery, your neck will never return to full strength. You will always have a weak spot and you will need to commit to life long care to prevent further injury. Maintain correct posture, eliminate excess body fat, follow a daily exercise programme and avoid unnecessary stresses to your back.
The right to refuse
You have the right to informed refusal, which means you can delay or reject the recommended treatment of your condition. Be mindful however that this may lead to the worsening of your neck pain and ask your doctor to detail what may happen should you choose not to undertake the recommended treatment.
Potential complications
Allergic reaction to medication
This can cause a rash, swelling of the hands, joints, eyelids and throat, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure and death. An allergic reaction is easily controlled with the correct equipment and medication.
Anaesthesia
There are a number of different types of anaesthesia:
Local: the medication is injected into the skin around the site of the surgery to numb only surrounding tissues.
Regional: where the body part is anaesthetised by number a major nerves or part of the spinal cord.
Conscious sedation: where a full anaesthetic is not given, rather, medications are used to create a near-sleep relaxed state.
General: where you are rendered unconscious and temporarily paralysed. In this instance, medication is given to you through an IV line, and machines breathe for you and monitor you together with the anaesthesiologist. Most spinal operations require general anaesthesia so that you can’t move during the operation.
There are many possible complications associated with a general anaesthetic. 1 to 10% of these include:
Post-operative nausea and vomiting: this may last a few hours to several days. It can be the result of the operation, anaesthetic and pain relieving medication.
Aches: as a result of lying immobile on a firm operation table for a long period of time.
Blurred vision/dizziness: due to low blood pressure from fluid loss or medication. Can be treated with fluid replacement and medications.
Bruising/pain: around injection and intravenous cannula sites. This usually settles by itself and the cannula can be moved if necessary.
Headaches: due to the operation, the anaesthetic, dehydration or anxiety. These may last a few hours but can be treated with medication.
Itchiness: can be an allergic reaction to drugs, sterilising fluid or sutures, or as a side effect of strong pain-relieving medication (opiates).
Memory loss/confusion: this is more common in older people who have had a general anaeasthetic. There are many causes and may last a few days or even weeks.
Pain from drug injection: some drugs cause pain when they are injected.
Shivering: can be caused by medication, stress or low body temperature during the surgery. Shivering can be treated with a hot air blanket.
Sore throat: from the breathing tube. This may last a few hours to a few days. Can be treated with pain-relieving lozenges.
Uncommon complications (0.1%) include:
Anaesthetic awareness: if you are ill, your anaesthesiologist may use more muscle relaxants and less general anaesthetic to reduce your risk. However, this may lead to you being aware of your body and your surroundings during the operation. Anaesthesiologists use monitors to observe your body’s reactions and adjust the medication doses. If you think you’ve been aware during the operation, it’s important to tell your anaesthesiologist afterwards.
Bladder problems: depending on the operation and the medications, men may find it difficult to urinate, while women tend to leak after the operation. If necessary, a urinary catheter is used to drain the bladder until control returns.
Chest infection: this may lead to breathing problems, but can be treated with antibiotics. This is more likely to occur in people who smoke.
Lip, teeth, tongue injury or jaw dislocation: this can be caused by difficulty placing the breathing tube, or by clenching your teeth as you recover from the anaesthetic.
Muscle pain: can be caused by a muscle-relaxing drug that is used to prevent vomiting during emergency surgery.
Slow breathing: can be due to some pain relieving drugs or muscle relaxants. Can be treated with medications.
Worsening of existing medical condition: your Anaesthesiologist will monitor your body closely and act to eliminate or reduce any medical complications.
Very rare complications (0.0005 to 0.01% of general anaesthetics) include:
Death: is very rare and usually occurs when 4 or more complication occur simultaneously. Death from anaesthesia occurs in 1 of every 200 000 anaesthetics.
Equipment failure: vital equipment can fail, but this is very rare, and monitors give immediate warnings.
Eye damage: eyelids are taped shut to protect them during surgery. Rarely, sterilising fluid may leak under the eyelids, or you may rub your eyes while waking from the anaesthetic. Any discomfort is usually temporary.
Nerve damage – stretch, compression, incision or puncture: recovery usually occurs within 3 months of the procedure.
Serious allergic reaction to medication: This is noticed and treated quickly, but can very rarely cause death, even in healthy people.
Artery Injury – vertebral
The vertebral artery passes close to the vertebral bodies in the neck. Injury during surgery is very rare but laceration can cause bleeding. In the unlikely event that the bleeding can’t be controlled, the injury may lead to a stroke and cause permanent disability such as blindness or paralysis, or death.
Cerebrospinal Fistula
This is when the dura (which contains the spinal cord and the cerebrospinal fluid) is torn and cerebrospinal fluid leaks onto the skin. Symptoms include a headache when standing, back or limb pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in the ears or sensitivity to bright light, including a risk of infection and meningitis. The dural tear may reseal spontaneously or it may need best rest, drainage or surgery to repair.
Death
No operation is risk-free. Complications resulting from a procedure can range from minor troubles to major disability. Even when a surgery has gone well, serious problems can still arise and result in pneumonia, heart attack, stroke or even death. The entire medical team is highly trained and committed to eliminating all risk pre-, during and post-surgery as much as is humanly possible.
Deep Vein Thrombosis
Any surgery can put you at an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot that forms inside the large deep veins of the legs). The reason for this is twofold: The blood’s clotting mechanism is switched on by the body trying to stop the bleeding associated with the operation; and injury to blood vessels, immobility and anaesthetic effects during and after the surgery make it easier for clots to develop.
The danger of a DVT is that it can block the blood flow from the legs back to the heart, causing swelling of the legs and pain. If the clot doesn’t dissolve properly, the swelling and discomfort can become permanent. Alternatively, the clot in the leg can detach and travel up the veins to the lungs, where it blocks the smaller lung blood vessels and stops the blood flow. This is called a pulmonary embolus, or PE. If the PE is large enough, or there are many of them, it can cause death.
Patients who are at additional risk of DVT are over the age of 50, have varicose veins, have had a previous heart attack, cancer, atrial fibrillation, an ischemic stroke, diabetes, previous DVT, heart failure, combined oral contraceptive pill use, smoking, obesity, leg weakness and inherited clotting abnormalities.
Durotomy
The dura is a thin layer of tissue that forms a sac containing the brain, spinal cord and nerve roots. This sac is filled with cerebrospinal fluid and can be torn during spinal surgery. It’s a complication that is more difficult to avoid during repeat surgery in the same location, or when operating on severe spinal narrowing or a large disc herniation. A dural tear – and the subsequent leakage of cerebrospinal fluid – can cause a headache when standing, back or limb pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in the ears or eye pain from bright light. A continual leak can lead to a cerebrospinal fluid cyst under the skin or a leakage of fluid from the wound. Dural tears can reseal spontaneously, or it may need bed rest, a blood patch procedure, draining or an additional operation to repair.
Epidural Hematoma
Should bleeding occur into the epidural space around the spinal cord it can form a pool of blood known as an epidural hematoma. If the hematoma is large, it can compress the spinal cord and nerve roots leading to pain, weakness, numbness and bowel and bladder problems. A surgical procedure may be needed to stem the bleeding and remove the hematoma.
Eye injury
During general anaesthesia the patient’s eyes are taped shut to protect them from the risk of drying or scratching. Should they become dry or scratched however, they typically heal within a day or two. Blindness is a rare complication that can be caused by too much pressure on the eyeball or decreased blood flow through the eye (ischemic optic neuropathy (ION)). Blindness due to ION is a 0,1% risk and is associated with emboli, prolonged spine surgery in patients older than 70, a face-down operating position, diabetes, intraoperative blood loss/hypotension and ankylosing spondylitis (poor position owing to a deformity of the neck).
Haematoma
During any surgery, some blood vessels will be cut. And although the surgeon stops all significant bleeding before closing the wound, there are instances in which bleeding restarts and forms a collection of blood in the tissues. Known as a haematoma, this can cause pain, put pressure on the adjacent tissues or become infected. A drainage tube may need to be inserted or a surgical operation performed.
Haemorrhage
Surgeons may need to cut some blood vessels in order to access the spinal operation site. The surgeon will plan the surgical route to avoid large blood vessels and will make sure that all bleeding has stopped before finishing the operation. Occasionally, one of these vessels can re-bleed after the procedure and if the rate or the location of the bleed is problematic, a further procedure may be needed to stem the bleeding and drain the accumulated blood.
Infection
Infections occur in less than 1% of spinal operations and are more likely in patients that smoke, have diabetes, are overweight, or had a hematoma. Symptoms of an infected wound include: increased pain, swelling, tenderness, redness, oozing (clear or yellow fluid), slowness to heal, or if the patient experiences fever or chills.
Infections can be superficial (involving the skin), which usually respond to oral antibiotics and washing of the site. Sometimes the wound needs cleaning and re-suturing. Deep infections (involving the vertebrae or spinal cord) are more serious and may need intravenous antibiotics and an operation to drain the infection. On rare occasions, infected bone graft or hardware may need to be removed.
Malignant Hyperthermia
This rare life-threatening condition is passed down through families and can be triggered by some drugs that are used for general anaesthesia. In susceptible people, the drugs can cause an uncontrolled increase in skeletal muscle calcium levels and muscle contraction, leading to decreased blood oxygen and increased blood carbon dioxide and body temperature. This can lead to circulatory collapse and death if not quickly treated. Symptoms usually develop within an hour of drug administration. As yet, there is no simple test to diagnose susceptibility but it is usually found during drug administration or suspected if a family member develops the symptoms. While treatment is effective it is critical that patients, who have a family history of malignant hyperthermia, discuss this with their doctor so that the use of the potential trigger drugs can be avoided.
Neck Pain
Neck pain (similar or different to the original neck pain) after the procedure is to be expected. It is usually temporary. However, in some patients, the original neck pain can persist or it can be worse.
Nerve Injury – Cervical
Because the vertebrae surround the spinal nerve roots and spinal nerves, surgery on the vertebra can injure the nerve roots. These nerves can be bruised, stretched, torn or cut while accessing or repairing the damaged vertebra. If a nerve is injured, it can cause pain as well as temporary or permanent, partial or complete, loss of sensation or movement in the patient’s arm.
Nerve Injury – C5
Even after a technically successful cervical surgery, injury to the C5 nerve root can occasionally happen, with symptoms sometimes occurring up to one month after the surgery. The C5 nerve root is shorter than the other nerve roots, and given its location, it is often stretched during surgery. The C5 is the only nerve supply to the elevating muscles of the shoulder, so any injury leads to an obvious weakness of this muscle. Partial recovery occurs over weeks to months, but it can take years.
Nerve Injury – Lateral Femoral Cutaneous
The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve supplies sensation to the front of the thigh. It usually passes under the inguinal ligament in front of the hip, however, in 10% of people, it passes over the anterior iliac crest, near the site of bone graft removal. It can be injured during bone graft removal or by prolonged pressure while lying on your front during the surgery. Injury causes pain, pins and needles or numbness on the front to the thigh called meralgia paresthetica. Pressure injuries usually resolve within three months. If the nerve has been cut, the symptoms may be permanent. Anaesthetic injections can help with pain management. Occasionally surgery may be required.
Nerve injury – ulnar
During surgery, the medical team carefully positions the patient’s body so that the injured region is easily accessible. This can result in the ulnar nerve (located in the arm) being compressed or stretched at the elbow. Symptoms of pain, numbness or weakness in the hand can appear up to 4 days after surgery and usually disappear over a few weeks.
Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis is a bacterial infection of bone or the bone marrow. It can occur as a result of surgery, especially after the replacement of foreign material in the bone, or as a result of an adjacent infection. Symptoms can take up to 4 weeks to appear post surgery – the most common of which is worsening pain after an initial period of relief. Risk factors include age, smoking, obesity, diabetes, malignancy, chemotherapy, immune suppression, malnutrition, indwelling venous catheters, concurrent infections and extended hospitalisation. Osteomyelitis is difficult to treat and often requires weeks or months of intravenous antibiotics and a surgical procedure to clean the area.
Post-Laminectomy Instability and Kyphosis
When bone, ligaments or muscle is removed from the posterior spine during a laminectomy, it can lead to an anterior strength imbalance. This, in turn, can pull that part of the spine into a kyphotic (flexed) posture. This occurs more commonly in children, when multiple levels are included, or at higher levels in the cervical spine. Over time, degeneration and the development of a kyphotic deformity can occur, causing pain, muscle fatigue and the compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots.
Pressure sores
Prolonged surgery and bed rest can result in the formation of skin pressure sores over prominent bones. The nursing team carefully place, pad and manoeuvre the patient to prevent this from happening.
Quadriplegia
The spine surrounds and protects the spinal cord. This means that surgery to the cervical spine can damage the cervical spinal cord, resulting in loss of movement and sensation in the torso and limbs. Quadriplegia may be complete, with no movement or sensation below the level of the spinal cord injury, or incomplete with some movement or sensation. Quadriplegia may involve impairment of movement and sensation of the limbs and torso, urinary and faecal incontinence, impotence and digestion and breathing difficulties. Quadriplegics are also at an increased risk of pressure sores, osteoporosis, fractures, frozen joints, thrombosis, respiratory infections, pneumonia and cardiovascular disease.
Residual Pain
Surgery can’t restore the spine to a pre-diseased state. This means that some remaining post-procedural pain is very common. Furthermore, a degree of discomfort from the operation site – and pain from adjacent areas already damaged by the disease or by their own degenerative problems – can be expected. Usually, any residual pain is mild, but it may be severe or even worse than the original problem.
Urinary Tract Infection
Given that patients undergo general anaesthetic during surgery and are confined to recuperative bed rest, they aren’t able to go to the toilet to urinate. As such, a urinary catheter is sometimes passed along the urethra to freely drain the bladder and avoid bladder discomfort. The presence of a urinary catheter does increase the risk of bacteria entering the bladder and causing a urinary tract infection. Treatment usually requires the catheter to be removed, followed by a course of antibiotics.