"Once the fusion occurs, then really that fusion is going to be as strong as anything," said Dr. Eric McCarty, chief of sports medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
"You do have to make sure thatit's healed and that the bones are completely fused to each other. But once that occurs, that's not going to break. But once you've had a nerve injury, nerves take a long time to regenerate, if at all, and if you've had a lot of compression on a nerve, you could have some permanent damage. Basically the nerve is the electrical power to the muscle, and sometimes that power gets crimped and it doesn't regenerate all the way. And that's the real issue in terms of recovery."
Former teammate Brandon Stokley played catch with the QB recently and said
Manning's arm strength had returned and that "he looks great."
Players have returned to the NFL after fusion surgery, including former Panthers quarterback Chris Weinke, who had fusion surgery before his last season at Florida State. He played nine seasons — one in college, eight in the NFL — after his fusion surgery, including five seasons for current Broncos coach John Fox during Fox's tenure as coach at Carolina.
Dr. Robert Watkins, the renowned back specialist who performed Manning's surgery, announced Feb. 2 he had cleared Manning to resume his playing career.
In 2010, Dr. Wellington K. Hsu, a surgeon and assistant professor at Northwestern University, published a study of 99 NFL players who had suffered herniated discs. Of those 99 players, 53 had surgeries and 46 opted for nonsurgical treatments. Hsu's study found players who had surgery had higher return-to-play rates and longer careers.
McCarty said there is concern, over time, not about the fusion, but rather the area just above and just below the fusion.
"What you do need to be careful of are the adjacent levels, above and below the fusion," McCarty said. "Because now you have this segment of vertebrae that is stiff with flexible areas above and below so you are at risk of developing some degenerative conditions of the areas above and below the fusion.
"Not necessarily a catastrophic risk, but there is a risk, and that's true of everyone. That can cause some pain and sometimes you have to go in and fuse those levels. But there have been a lot of athletes, football players, who have played with single level fusion and gone off and played successfully."
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