Rozy56

My 2 level ACDF was done on Wednesday. After I went home, my neck started to swell. By Friday, it had become enormous. I emailed my surgeon a picture of my neck and he told me to come to the ER. When he saw the neck swelling, he was afraid that it would compromise my airway. He had called ahead to the hospita and I was fast tracked. While waiting for the spine surgeon to arrive,an ENT had scoped me and did a swallow study which were normal. Both the spine doctot and ENT drained and cleaned out the neck. The eusophagus was examined by the ENT and looked fine. The doctors think that I developed an enormous hematoma which had just started to become infected. When I got to the ER, I was running a temperature and my neck was warm and red. Infectious disease has me on UV antibiotics while the culture is growing out. So far, After 2 1/2 days, the culture continues to be negative. The despite negative findings for the eusophagus, the ENT has me NPO and receiving bonus feeds as a precaution. I am frustrated as the tube is very uncomfortable and there is no evidence that the eusophagus had ever been compromised. The spine surgeon came by yesterday. He said that there were so many massive spurs that it looked like a mountain range. In all of his years of doing this kind of surgery, mine was one of the worse he has seen. He said that it usually takes a few minutes to smooth out the surface where the plate will go. It took an hour to smooth mine out. The bone were so thick that he had to drill some of the areas. I will be in the hospital through Tuesday Wednesday.

What are the pros/cons of a 2 level ACDF vs 2 level artificial disc?

Thank you for your response. I saw a neurosurgeon this past Thursday. For the first time, I had diminished sensation in my right arm. This tone, when my reflexes were tested, they were brisk in three areas. When I put my head back, I experience tinnitus and dizziness. The neurosurgeon said the flex XRays concerned him as I have a reverse lordosis which doesn’t change with flexing. Like you, he said that the MRI doesn’t match with my symptoms. He is ordering a mylogram which he said will provide an accurate picture of where the compression is. The doctor said that 97% if the time. an MRI is sufficient bit occasionally, the MRI does not match the physical findings. He feels that in a mylogram will help to determine the best surgical approach.