What effect does a fusion procedure have on the rest of the cervical spine?

It changes things: Taking away movement at one level (or more) shifts the burden to the neighboring levels (disks and joints). Depending on your genes, they may have been prone to degeneration anyway, but the increased stress might speed this process. It may or may not cause you problems. Degeneration can be painless.

There is a risk of: Developing adjacent segment or level disease like a disc herniation ', spinal stenosis or degenerative instability which may require further surgery. The rate of this varies depending on if you smoke , your age, what the adjacent levels were like to begin with and the type of fusion you had. Overall , this could be a 5-25% risk.

Risk of adjacent dz: It increases the risk of adjacent segment disease, especially at the level above the fusion.