By Dr. Brandon Vinzant
If any of you are sports fans as I am, you couldn’t have gone very long without recently hearing about Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts quarterback, and the problems he has been having with his neck and throwing arm. CNN reported that Manning had been suffering from a pinched nerve which caused him neck pain and weakness in his arm and hand. Manning has had two previous surgeries that appeared to be unsuccessful for this same condition. ¹ This time, the surgeons hoped that his THIRD surgery will be the successful one. Manning had a procedure called a single level anterior fusion. That involves making an incision at the front of the neck. The disc is removed from the nerve and spinal cord. The surgeon then fills the open disc space with a bone graft. The graft acts as a bridge between the two vertebrae, creating a spinal fusion. Metal plates and screws are often used to hold the bone graft and vertebrae together. (more)
