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Singapore General Hospital has been seeing more patients with neck pain requiring surgery.
Associate Professor Tan said, “We are certainly doing a lot more surgeries for slipped disc and bone spurs than we used to. Typically, we see more office workers who are working with computers suffering from this problem, with almost half the patients who come for cervical surgery coming because they are at risk for paralysis.”
He explained that desk-bound workers are more at risk. “The office worker tends to stare for long hours at the computer screen. In that position, his head is likely to be in an off-centre position, exerting a heavy strain on the cervical spine. This causes compression loading onto the discs which may cause a tear to one or more of the discs resulting in a ‘slipped disc’.”
Ball-and-socket implant for neck
Patients who require surgery can now opt for the latest cervical spine implant surgery using the improved version of an artificial disc known as the Prestige LP. Once implanted, the discs are designed to last a lifetime.
Associate Professor Tan said, “This ball-and-socket metal implant works in the same way as other artificial joints that have been used in surgery for the lower back and the hip and knee joints for decades. The latest artificial disc for the neck, which we are using at SGH, is a unique metal-on-metal design with no plastic parts that can wear out easily.”
First hospital in South East Asia
SGH was the first hospital in South East Asia in 2004 to offer cervical spine disc replacement surgery using the Prestige LP artificial disc. Since then, its orthopaedic spine surgery team has attended to over 60 such patients including several patients who have had three discs implanted. The hospital has also trained many surgeons from different countries in the technique.
Associate Professor Tan said that conventional cervical spine surgery, which involves a fusion of the affected disc space by using a piece of bone from the patient’s pelvis to replace the slipped disc that has been removed, is still performed at SGH but is less common than before. This method requires an additional operation to the pelvis to remove the piece of bone, and recovery time is longer as the bone takes time to fuse.
Change your work habits
Associate Professor Tan said the best way to care for the neck is not to stress it and cause problems to the cervical spine, especially if a person has had frequent attacks of neck pain previously. Careful attention to posture, ergonomics and regular stretching and exercising are important to relieve stress and prevent injury. Male and female office workers aged between 25 and 45 have a higher risk of developing ‘slipped discs’ that may eventually require surgery.
So if you fit the typical profile of an office worker at risk of damaging your cervical spine, change your work habits now. If you suffer from pain in your neck, monitor its characteristics and if necessary, consult an orthopaedic surgeon.
Call centre operator nearly paralysed due to bad posture
Former call centre operator Tan Sok Hoon had a convenient way of answering her telephone. She wedged the receiver between her shoulder and ear to free her hands for other tasks. The 27-year-old found out the hard way that she was repeatedly injuring her neck.
“Though I was suffering with pain for months, I only went for a massage and hoped that things would be okay. One day, the pain became acute and I was rushed to the SGH Emergency Department. A scan showed that I was suffering from two slipped discs in my neck. The doctor told me that I was almost paralysed and surgery was necessary. That was very scary.”
Sok Hoon opted for the Prestige LP cervical spine surgery because ‘it was less painful with just one operation’. She was hospitalised for four days and is relieved that she is now almost as good as new. “I have to be careful and refrain from sports. But I feel normal now.”
Sok Hoon resigned from the call centre after she realised her neck injury was caused by her habit of wedging the phone on her shoulder to make up for the lack of a hands-free headset. She has since highlighted her case to her former employer and asked that these headsets be provided to all the call centre operators.
Cervical spine surgery: 2 options
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Implant – Prestige LP |
Bone fusion – Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) |
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Surgical removal of slipped disc or bone spur |
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Patient implanted with up to three ball-and-socket metal discs |
A piece of patient’s hip bone is removed, placed into a ‘metal cage’ and grafted into cervical spine |
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Single operation for disc implantation |
Two surgeries – one to remove patient’s hip bone and another to graft this bone into cervical spine |
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Movement encouraged after surgery |
After surgery, patient’s movement is restricted with a cervical collar for a few months to allow transplanted bone to fuse with cervical spine |
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Hospital stay 4 - 5 days |
Hospital stay up to a week |
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Lasts the patient’s lifetime |
Cervical spine problem can recur if bad habits are unchanged |
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Disc costs $5,500 |
Hip bone from patient, so no additional cost | |
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