Orthopaedic Services and Procedures

OPERATIVE PROCEDURES

• Cervical Posterior Foraminotomy

A posterior cervical foraminotomy is a minimally-invasive procedure designed to enlarge to space through which the nerve root exits from the spinal cord (the so-called neural foramen) and at the same time try to remove any piece of disk which is pushing on the nerve. Interestingly, sometimes the foraminotomy alone can alleviate symptoms without a diskectomy being needed. The whole disk is not removed, just the fragment pressing the nerve root. A fusion is not performed and most patients typically do not require a neck collar after the surgery.