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So surgery that’s done after a spinal cord injury is generally done for two primary reasons.
One is if there is, in the judgment of a surgeon treating an individual with a spinal cord
injury, that there appears to be on going compression, or pressure on the spinal cord,
then often times surgery will be done to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord—with the
hopes that, by relieving the compression of the spinal cord, that any additional or further
damage to the spinal cord is minimized, and hopefully allows those nerves that have survived
the initial injury, to recover. The second reason to, that’s often times to do surgery
is, if as a result of the injury, there is some deformity in the alignment of the spine
that could potentially lead to further problems in the future, a surgeon will often times
do surgery to correct the malalignment, and to fuse the spine in order to maintain stability
and prevent further damage.