Cervical Spine Injuries on the rise across the globe

The growing burden of degenerative cervical disc disease in the aging population is one of the key factors for rise in cervical spine surgeries across the globe.More than 200,000 cervical spine injuries occur due to road traffic accidents and workplace accidents every year in India.

Dr Vishnu Manyam, Consultant - SpineSurgeon at Gleneagles Global Hospital says, “Most of the cervical spine problems can be managed without surgery;however surgery may be needed to decompress the spine and nerves when the symptoms are severe and are not responding to conservative therapies”.

“Cervical Spine Surgery,like any other surgical procedure has risk of complications.The common complications could be anesthesia related,infection or neurovascular injury.While complications specific to cervical spine surgery are very rare, there may be a higher risk for certain complications based on the type of cervical spine surgery. For example patients undergoing an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion are at a risk of dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), nerve injury in the larynx, and swelling of the pharynx wall.An Injury to oesophagus may lead to aspiration pneumonia, which can be fatal”, added DrManyam.

On an average, the success rate of cervical spine surgery is quite high and the complications are very rare. The most common cervical spine surgery called anterior cervical discectomy and fusion has a success rate ranging between 98 to 100 %. Dural tear ,which is recorded as the commonest complication has an overall incidence of just 0.77 %.Another complication called C5 nerve injury has an approximately 0.42 % incidence.Use of advanced surgical microscopes and spine endoscopes has made cervical spine surgery even safer.

One of the key factors that may increase risk of complications during surgery is whether the procedure is an emergency or elective in nature.Emergency procedures are commonly related to trauma or tumors and carry a higher risk of complications.Some of the patient factors that can compromise a favorable outcome of the surgery include heart and lungs diseases,diabetes,obesity and a habit of smoking and drinking alcohol.

While some of the complications were almost nonexistent, it is important to discuss all the complications related to the specific procedure with your doctor before signing up for the surgery.A proper patient selection and a thorough preoperative planning ensure a higher success rate and lower the risk of complications in cervical spine surgery.

About Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Lakdi-ka-pul, Hyderabad

Gleneagles Global Hospitals, located at Lakdi-ka-pul, was the first Gleneagles Global Hospitals facility opened in Hyderabad. The facility is known as one of the best tertiary care multi-super speciality hospitals in India. With world-renowned doctors and the best of medical facilities, the hospital has been at the forefront of performing rare and complex surgeries including the first Heart Transplant in the region, Liver and Kidney Transplants amongst others. Expert care and advanced surgical procedures are offered at the facility for a wide range of specialties such as Hepatology, Nephrology, Bariatrics, Gastroenterology, Multi-Organ Transplants and others.

Gleneagles Global Hospitals has multi-super speciality hospitals in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. The brand is the most preferred hospital group for multi-organ transplants in the Asia region. The parent entity of Gleneagles Global Hospitals is IHH Healthcare, a leading premium integrated healthcare provider with a network of 84 hospitals and more than 16,000 licensed beds. It is one of the largest healthcare groups in the world by market capitalisation and is listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia and Main Board of SGX-ST. IHH is a leading player in the home markets of Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and India, and in their key growth markets of China and Hong Kong.