Your brain and spinal cord work together to form the central nervous system, a complex mechanism that controls everything the body can do. With a system this complicated and crucial to everyday life, it’s no wonder that even the slightest injury or damage to the spinal cord can wreak a fair amount of havoc. When it comes to your spine, complete and incomplete spinal cord injury can present unique challenges to your future.

When it comes to any injury, including those to your neck, surgery should be your final option. There are plenty of more conservative treatment methods to treat pain and try to restore normal function to the neck. However, if you’ve worked through alternative options and find yourself at the bottom of the barrel and still in pain, it might be time to consider surgery. But this raises an important question: when is it necessary to get neck surgery?

Your upper spine, more commonly known as your neck area, consists of a series of cervical vertebrae that connect your spine to your skull. These vertebrae and connected spinal roots nerves provide a significant nerve supply to your head, neck,…

We often take our necks for granted, forgetting the crucial role they play in supporting our heads, aiding in motion and keeping our bodies functional and alert. Of course, once the natural movement of our necks becomes compromised, we quickly…

A cervical bone break — more commonly known as a broken neck — happens when there’s a break in one of the vertebrae that run from the spine into your neck. It should go without saying that cervical bone breaks…

If you have ever experienced any sort of collision or sudden jolt — situations typically involving a car accident of some sort — you may have sustained a residual pain in your neck and upper shoulders. Even if you walked…

With age and with some types of trauma to the spine, bone spurs can occur. These bony growths can put pressure on the nerves or spinal cord, causing pain and affecting your range of movement. Laminectomy, also known as decompression…

Discectomy is a surgical treatment option for some patients who have a herniated disc which is causing pain by pressing on the spinal cord or nerve root. In this procedure, some of the disc material is removed, relieving pressure and…

Microdecompression spine surgery is one solution for patients with herniated lumbar discs. This minimally invasive surgery, also sometimes known as a microdiscectomy, involves removing part of the herniated disc. This helps relieve some of the pressure on the nerves, which…

Cervical discs provide cushioning between the cervical spine and the vertebrae. Over time these discs can degenerate or can even be damaged through impact or other trauma. When this happens, part of the disc can move from its normal place…