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Get answers to your Spine related questions.
Intervertebral foramina; Spine surgery - foraminotomy
Foraminotomy is surgery that widens the opening in your back where nerve roots leave your spinal canal. You may have a narrowing of the nerve opening (foraminal stenosis).
Foraminotomy takes pressure off of a nerve in your spinal column and allows it to move more easily. It may be performed on any level of the spine. You will be asleep and feel no pain (general anesthesia).
A bundle of nerves (nerve root) leaves your spinal cord through openings in your spinal column, called the neural foramen. When the openings for the nerve root become narrow, it may put pressure on your nerve. This condition is called foraminal spinal stenosis.
This surgery may be considered if you have severe symptoms that interfere with your daily life. Such symptoms include:
You will have an MRI to make sure foraminal stenosis is causing your symptoms.
You and your doctor can decide when you need to have surgery for these symptoms. Spinal stenosis symptoms often become worse over time, but this may happen very slowly.
Curlee PM. Other disorders of the spine. In: Canale ST, Beatty JH, eds. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2007:chap 41.
Park AL. Lower back pain and disorders intervertebral discs. In: Canale ST, Beatty JH, eds. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2007:chap 39.
Weinstein JN, Tosteson TD, Lurie JD,et al. Surgical versusnonoperative treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis four-year results of the Spine
Patient Outcomes Research Trial. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2010 Jun
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