Cervical Posterior Foraminotomy

This surgery removes bone and/​or por­tions of a her­ni­at­ed or dis­eased disc to relieve neck and radi­at­ing arm pain caused by parts of the disc press­ing on nerve roots. A disc her­ni­a­tion may com­press the nerve root against the roof of the spinal canal. The high­light­ed area is the bone that will be removed in this pro­ce­dure. The sur­geon cre­ates an inci­sion in the neck to expose the bony roof of the spine, sur­gi­cal instru­ments are used to clear away bone and soft tis­sue. This gives the sur­geon access to the pinched nerve root and her­ni­at­ed disc in the spinal canal. It also reduces pres­sure on the nerve root. The sur­geon uses a small instru­ment to check the free­dom of the nerve. If the sur­geon finds a frag­ment of her­ni­at­ed disc beneath the nerve root, it is removed. The nerve root returns to a nor­mal, com­fort­able position.