Parkinson’s and cervical fusion surgery question

[Jojaku123]

Greetings, all! I’m looking for a little advice regarding Parkinson’s and neck surgery. It looks like I may need triple fusion surgery in my neck. The complicating factor (potentially) is that in order to do this surgery from the front of the neck, which would be optimal, the surgeon sort of has to pull my throat to the side to get access to my spine. Afterwards, swallowing can be a little bit more difficult for a few days. My concern is that this could potentially impact my swallowing on a more permanent basis. The surgeon wants to do a swallowing test before moving forward to make sure that the surgery is safe. Just wondering, does anybody have any experience or advice with this particular issue?

[redhawk1]

Sounds like the same surgery a friend of mine just had a few months ago. He is not a PWP. His surgery was successfully performed with very little pain. He had to wear a neck/jaw brace for about 6 weeks. Seems to have helped him.

[Bunny622023]

Interesting Jojaku123, my husband had spinal fusion in gosh, c3/4 I think it was back in 2013 and the surgeon was also concerned about the best entry to do it, from front or back. Because my husband at the time had Dyskinesia, he was worried about breakage of the fusion by the dyskinesia but also as you have said, the whole pushing aside of the throat. My husband had no issues, but it wasn't a triple, and to this day all has been fine. His dyskinesias actually disappeared because of DBS anyway, so it has never been an issue. All the best.

[Jojaku123 in reply to Bunny622023]

I’m happy to hear that it was such a success! That’s great… Thank you for your feedback

[Sydney75]

My husband had a ACDF C3-C6 with a corpectomey (for cord compression) about a year before his PD diagnosis. The anesthesia sent him into a talespin, make sure the the anesthesiologist knows you have PD (we did not know and they can avoid problematic drugs). He healed well, much better than the lumbar surgery.

[Jojaku123 in reply to Sydney75]

Thank you for sharing this. I’m sorry for his difficulties but glad he made it through OK.