My father was involved in a motorcycle accident about 15 years ago, but since his accident he has had terrible back trouble. He had had seven back surgeries since his accident. In 2007, he was complaining numbness, tingling, and decreases sensation in his left arm, thumb, index, and middle fingers and a lot of pain in his neck that wouldn't go away. His MRI showed foraminal narrowing in C4-T1 area and he was also diagnosed with radiculopathy, which is where the nerves become inflamed by disc herniation. A disc herniation is where the nucleus pulposus (the center of the disc) is squeezed out of a torn annulus (the coating around the nucleus pulposus) and pushes out into the spinal canal. His doctor suggested an epidural steroid injection, but my dad refused because steroid injections have never worked for him in the past. After reviewing over possible alternatives, my dad decided to have a cervical spine fusion of C5-C6 and C6-C7. My father, thankfully, did not have any major risks from the surgery besides decreased range of motion and pain. According to my fathers' surgeon blindness, paralysis, difficulty swallowing, voice changes or damage to vocal cords, infection, esophageal injury, decreased blood, and dural tears are all possible outcomes from having a spinal fusion.
Only about 1 in 10 people have to have surgery, according to the mayo clinic. Other alternatives for disc herniation are medication, exercise, stretching, wearing a brace, etc.
I have uploaded an image of a disc herniation example from www.health-res.com.
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