How long does it take to recover from spine surgery?

I'm often asked, how long will it take me to recover, and how much time will I need to take off work. That varies a bit between procedures. But generally, if you're talking about an operation in the front of the neck, at only one or two levels, people are feeling quite good usually within a couple of weeks. And certainly by six weeks they're able to go back to work with virtually no restrictions. If the operation involves going in the back of the neck and involves a lot of levels, the period of time that they are off work is more, but generally, they're getting back to their normal activities somewhere between six weeks and three months.

The advantage of the cervical spine operations we do is they seem to have an immediately better outcome than some of the low-back operations we do. That's presumably because there's less stress on your neck than there is on your low back.

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• recovery
• surgery
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