Cervical procedures
ACDF
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for nerve or cord compression in the neck.
Cervical Disc Replacement
Replaces a damaged neck disc while preserving motion at the treated level.
Posterior Cervical Fusion
Stabilizes the neck from the back when alignment, instability, decompression, or prior surgery requires posterior fixation.
Cervical Laminectomy
Creates more room for the spinal cord in the neck by removing the back portion of selected vertebrae.
Cervical Foraminotomy
Enlarges the opening where a cervical nerve exits to relieve arm pain, numbness, or weakness.
Cervical Laminoplasty
Expands the cervical spinal canal across several levels while preserving the posterior bony arch.
Minimally Invasive Cervical Fusion
Uses a limited approach to decompress and stabilize selected cervical levels while reducing tissue disruption where anatomy permits.
Lumbar procedures
Microdiscectomy
Minimally invasive decompression for selected patients with herniated-disc nerve pain.
Lumbar Foraminotomy
Widens the exit channel for a compressed lumbar nerve to address radiating leg symptoms.
Lumbar Laminectomy
Decompresses lumbar nerves crowded by spinal stenosis to improve leg symptoms and walking tolerance.
Lumbar Interspinous Device
Uses an implant between selected lumbar spinous processes to support decompression or stability in carefully selected cases.
Lumbar Disc Replacement
Replaces a selected painful lumbar disc with an artificial disc designed to preserve motion.
Anterior Lumbar Fusion
Stabilizes one or more lumbar levels through an approach from the front of the spine.
Posterior Lumbar Fusion
Stabilizes the lower spine from the back, often with decompression when nerves are compressed.
Minimally Invasive Lumbar Fusion
Stabilizes selected lumbar levels through smaller working corridors when that approach can meet the full surgical goal.
Reconstruction, stabilization, and implant technology
Use of spinal implants was directly confirmed. The spinal implants guide is a technology and implant overview, not a standalone operation.
Spinal Implants Overview
Explains how screws, rods, plates, cages, artificial discs, and other implants support a specific reconstruction.
Spinal Deformity Surgery
Corrects selected alignment problems through anterior, posterior, or combined reconstruction.
Scoliosis Surgery
Treats selected spinal curves and imbalance when progression, pain, function, or neurologic compromise warrants correction.
Spinal Fracture Stabilization
Protects the spinal cord and restores stability or alignment after selected cervical, thoracic, or lumbar fractures.
General educational overview
This regional comparison is the one general overview in the library; it is not an additional directly confirmed category.
How to use this library
Condition first, procedure second. That is the order the practice works in, and it is the order that serves you here. The conditions section explains what is wrong; the procedure pages explain what can be done about it. Reading a procedure page before you understand the condition it treats is how people end up asking for operations they do not need.
Every page in this library follows the same shape: what the operation treats, who it fits and who it does not, how the diagnosis gets confirmed, how Dr. Merola performs it, what recovery asks of you, what the risks are, and the honest alternatives. Nothing is sold. Where an operation is usually the wrong answer, the page says so.
Useful companions: the consultations page for what a visit covers, and injured-worker care if the problem started on the job.
Choosing among procedures, and who chooses
Overlapping options are a feature of spine surgery, not a flaw. A pinched cervical nerve can be freed from the front or the back. A stenosed lumbar canal can be opened at one exit tunnel or along its whole length. A diseased disc can be fused or, in selected anatomy, replaced.
What breaks the tie is never preference. It is where the compression sits, what the standing alignment shows, how many levels are involved, the bone quality, and the life the spine has to go back to. That is surgeon judgment exercised on your films, and it is the substance of a consultation here.
If reading this library leaves you with two candidate operations and a genuine question, good. That question is the consult. Call the office and bring it.
A note on second opinions across this library
Every operation in this library has alternatives, and a fair number of surgical recommendations in New York get revised when the actual imaging gets a second read. That is not a knock on the first surgeon; spine surgery is a judgment discipline and honest judgments differ.
The pattern worth knowing: the second opinion that earns its fee re-reads the films from scratch, matches them against its own examination, and is willing to say the operation on the table is the wrong one. When two surgeons who have both done that disagree, you have a real decision to make with real information. The consultations page describes exactly how that visit runs here.
Brooklyn and Manhattan patients bring him this problem regularly, and most of them do not end up in an operating room.
If any of this sounds like the pain you have been carrying around, call or email the office. Request an appointment and Dr. Merola will review your case himself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Dr. Merola perform the procedures in this library?
Dr. Merola performs the 19 listed cervical, lumbar, deformity, scoliosis, fracture, and stabilization procedure categories. The general laminectomy page is a regional educational overview that links to the dedicated cervical and lumbar laminectomy pages.
Does being listed mean a procedure is right for me?
No. A procedure is considered only after an examination, imaging review, and a discussion of conservative options and individual risks.
What is the difference between a neurosurgeon and an orthopedic spine surgeon?
Both operate on the spine, and for degenerative spine disease the corridors and the training overlap heavily. Neurosurgeons come to the spine through the nervous system, orthopedic surgeons through bone and alignment, and both fields produce excellent spine surgeons. The questions that predict your experience better: does the surgeon read the imaging personally, perform the operation personally, and consider no-operation a real outcome?
Is spine surgery a major surgery?
Some of it is. A single-level microdiscectomy is a focused, outpatient-scale operation; an adult deformity reconstruction is major by any definition. The honest answer for your case comes from knowing which of those two worlds your problem lives in, which is one visit away.
How long does pain last after spinal surgery?
Incision pain typically fades over days to a couple of weeks. Deeper nerve symptoms improve on a slower clock of weeks to months. Pain that follows that arc is ordinary recovery; pain that climbs instead of easing gets evaluated, not endured.