Decompression Surgery

What Is Decompression Surgery?

Think of it this way: Imagine a tunnel whose ceiling has partially caved in, making it too narrow for traffic to pass through. Decompression surgery is like shaving away the collapsed ceiling to widen the tunnel again.

  • At the back of each vertebra, there is a bony "lid" called the lamina
  • In decompression surgery, your surgeon removes part of this bony lid and any thickened ligaments to widen the spinal canal — the passageway where your nerves travel
  • If several levels are narrowed, the same procedure is performed at each affected level

Decompression surgery — before and after, showing the nerve pathway widened

The goal is strictly to relieve pressure on the nerves — this surgery does not straighten a curved spine or correct its alignment.