Not always symptomatic.
Treatments include either conservative fusion or non-fusion techniques.
When conservative treatment does not relieve pain spinal fusion is indicated for the cervical and lumbar spine.
Following fusion surgery suppression of motion at a specific level can accelerate adjacent segment degeneration as motion cannot be provided elsewhere.
A study of 71 patients with cervical fusion revealed adjacent level degeneration occurred in 73% of cases and 17% of patients required further surgery.