Conditions
and
Treatments of the
SPINE
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FUSIONS
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Spinal
Instrumentation and Fusion
Spinal
instrumentation is a generic term for surgical procedures that
incorporate the use of screws, rods, cages, plates, and/or
cylinders. These are medically designed implants or spinal implants.
Fusion simply
means the addition of bone (bone graft) and may be used in
conjunction with spinal implants. When fusion and implants are
combined, it can provide structural support where the spine has
failed. Fusion is similar concrete (bone grafts) reinforced with
steel (instrumentation).
When
redundant vertebral motion (same repeated action) places constant
pressure on surrounding nerves, pain may result. Fusion stops the
movement and either eliminates or reduces the pain.
With spinal
instrumentation and fusion working together, the patient may be able
to get up the day following surgery. Before medically designed
implants were available, bone grafting (bone tissue) simply was not
enough to provide immediate spinal stability. In those days, the
patient was put into a plaster body cast to hold everything still so
the area could fuse. Using implants, the bone actually may grow
around the rods and/or other spinal implants ... similar to
reinforced concrete.
SOURCE:
NeuroSurgery.org
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