If you have chronic bad neck pain, chronic arm pain, numbness, weakness, or tingling in your spine or arm, your doctor, usually a neurosurgeon, may suggest cervical spine surgery. The purpose of the surgery is to stop abnormal movement in your spine. Your spinal cord is protected by 24 bones making up your spinal column. In between these bones are discs that account for the flexibility in your spine. Removing one of these discs or bones and fusing the vertebrae together, also known as cervical spine fusion surgery, may relieve the for-mentioned pain by regaining normal motion in the spine.

A cervical herniated disc is one of the most common cervical spine problems and arm pain is its most common symptom. This arm pain is a result of one of your discs pressing or pinching on a cervical nerve. Other symptoms include: numbness, muscle weakness, and tingling.

Treatment for a herniated disc can be simple with the main focus being relieving the arm pain. Anti-inflammatory medications are the first step, i.e., ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or COX-2 inhibitors (Celebrex). If these don't work, cutting down on physical activities, physical therapy, stronger pain medications, and/or bracing can be tried.

If all of these treatments do not work, surgery, a cervical discectomy, would be your last option. All surgeries have risk, but a good neurosurgeon should be able to complete the surgery with a minimum amount of risk and pain.

Spinal Stenosis is the narrowing of the back (lumbar) and neck (cervical) spinal canal due to bone spurs. When this occurs the nerve is being compressed and pain results. Pain for Spinal Stinosis is different than a herniated disc. The symptoms for Spinal Stenosis include: leg pain, neck pain, numbness in the lower part of your body (thighs, calves, buttocks), back pain that spreads down through the legs, weakness in the legs, and difficulty when walking.

Treatment for Spinal Stenosis is similar to a herniated disc, mainly anti-inflammatory medications and possibly steroids. If these measures fail, surgery would be an option.

Your surgeon/doctor will have the best recovery plan for you to help you return to a normal life post-surgery. Luckily, most patients see immediate results from cervical spine surgery. The recovery can vary from patient to patient depending on a variety of factors: age, surgery site, expertise of surgeon, overall health, etc. Most patients can expect to be walking around by the end of the day or next day.