Cervical disc disease in Turkey

The operations on this page are aimed at symptoms travelling into the arm from a compressed nerve root, or at cord compression. They are not reliable treatments for neck pain on its own. If aching in the neck is your main complaint and your arms are normal, surgery is much less likely to help, and a surgeon should say so before quoting you.

That distinction is worth insisting on, because it separates the people this operation was designed for from the people who are simply in pain and hoping. Physiotherapy, pain management and time deal with most neck pain, including most nerve root pain, which improves in the majority of cases without surgery.

• Arm pain, numbness or weakness

  Radiating into a specific arm and hand pattern, persisting despite proper conservative treatment, with imaging that matches the examination. This is the case for decompression.

• Signs of cord compression

  Clumsy hands, unsteady walking, changes in bladder control. Assessed urgently rather than booked, and the reason not to wait for a travel date.

• Neck pain alone

  Common, and usually managed without surgery. If this is your only symptom, be sceptical of a surgical answer arriving quickly.

• Spondylosis on a scan

  Degenerative changes are near universal with age and are found in people with no symptoms at all. The scan is read against your examination, not instead of it.

For the lower back rather than the neck, see microdiscectomy and laminectomy. For the wider orthopaedic offering, see orthopedics in Turkey.

1. 1

   Examination before imaging

   Which muscles are weak, which reflexes have changed, whether there are signs of cord involvement. The scan is interpreted against that, because scans of necks without symptoms show degeneration too.
2. 2

   Deciding the level and the approach

   Which disc, and whether from the front or the back. Ask the surgeon to name the level and to explain how your symptoms match it.
3. 3

   General anaesthetic

   You are asleep. The anterior approach goes through a crease in the front of the neck, moving the windpipe and gullet aside rather than cutting them.
4. 4

   Removing the disc

   The disc and any bone spur pressing on the nerve or cord is taken out under magnification.
5. 5

   Fusion or implant

   Either a spacer and usually a plate to hold the level while it fuses, or an artificial disc if you are a candidate for it.
6. 6

   Waking and the first days

   A sore throat and difficulty swallowing are common early and usually settle. Your voice may be hoarse. Tell the team immediately about breathing difficulty or a swelling neck.

• How many levels are treated. One level is the standard case. More changes the operation, the recovery and the price, and should be named.
• Fusion or artificial disc. The implants cost differently, and disc replacement is priced above a standard fusion in most quotes.
• Which implant. Manufacturer and model belong in your records, not just in the invoice.
• Hospital nights and monitoring. Neck surgery is not a day case package. The quote should say how many nights and in what kind of unit.
• Imaging, assessment and physiotherapy. Whether new imaging, blood tests, the anaesthetic review and any rehabilitation are included.

The clinic list on this page shows each clinic's current price with a note on what it includes. For instalments, see payment plans. For the lower back, see microdiscectomy.

• Ask what they are trained in. Neurosurgery or orthopaedic spine surgery, and how much of their practice is the cervical spine specifically.
• Ask how often they turn people down. A surgeon who operates on everyone who asks is telling you how the decision gets made.
• Ask about adjacent level problems. How often they see them after fusion, and how that influences their choice between fusion and replacement.
• Ask about the hospital. Which one, what monitoring exists overnight, and who responds if your neck swells at three in the morning.
• Ask what happens if the arm pain persists. A technically sound operation does not always abolish symptoms, and you want to know that before, not after.