Cervical Laminectomy Surgery
A cervical laminectomy is a surgical procedure designed to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or spinal nerve by widening the spinal canal. A small part of the bony roof of the spine, the lamina, is removed during a cervical laminectomy to provide more room for the nerves. A surgeon can perform a laminectomy of the cervix with or without fusing vertebrae or removing part of a disk.
An incision is made down the middle of the back of the neck to allow the surgeon to access the back of the cervical spine. The surgeon then removes the lamina. The removal of the lamina softens the pressure on the spinal cord. The spinal canal “roof” is left open; there is no need to cover the lamina with a plate or a bone graft.
In this procedure, the surgeon removes some bone from the joint (called a facet joint) that compresses the nerve. A foraminotomy is often performed at the same time as a laminectomy.
