Shadowing Practice: Anterior Cervical Diskectomy & Fusion - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I have a lot of patients who come and see me with neck pain that is radiating down the arm.

This condition is called cervical radiculopathy.

It is usually because of a pinched nerve in the neck, either due to a bone spur or a herniated disc.

There's an excellent surgery for this condition.

This is called anterior cervical discectomy infusion.

Basically, through this surgery, we unpinch the nerve by removing a disc in the neck, and we stabilize that level by fusing it.

And today, I'm going to show you how this surgery is done step by step.

I'm making this video for my patients who want to know more about the surgery, see how it's done.

So I'll take you through it step by step.

And also for patients out there who are dealing with a similar problem

and are debating whether or not they should have the surgery.

So today I'm going to show you the case of a patient who had a pinched nerve between the C6

and the C7 vertebrae in the neck, pinching the C7 nerve.

The C7 nerve comes out of the neck

and goes all the way down into the forearm and the hand and can cause some severe pain, numbness, and tingling.

So without further ado, let's get started.

The first step is to place the patient on the operating room table after they've been intubated and they've received anesthesia.

And we check an x-ray from the side

and we put a marker on the skin and make sure that we know where the C7 vertebrae is.

So we mark the skin. And similarly, we put another probe on the skin to mark where the

c6 level is after we figure out where the c6

and the c7 vertebra are we make a small incision between

those two points we get down deeper on the spine

and very carefully we take a tiny needle

and we put it into the c7 vertebra

and check another rectifier from the side now it's very important to make sure

that you are the correct vertebral level

because of course you don't want to remove the wrong level

disc now after you've confirmed your level you focus all of your attention at the c6

and c7 level so the next step is to create some space between the c6

and the c7 bones and how do you do

that well the first step is to take a small threaded pin

and put it into the c7 vertebra similarly you take a second pin

and you insert it into the c6 vertebra next you slide a distractor over these pins

and apply a very minimal distraction maybe one

or two millimeters to gently open up this disk space this allows you more space to work

and this also allows you to open up the nerve so it is no longer pinched

next using a series of different instruments we remove the degenerated disk between c6

and c7 and and we remove it all the way to the back of the vertebral body.

It's very important to remove all the discs because the nerve lives all the way in the back, right over here at this point.

After you have removed the disc, we use special instruments to unpinch the nerve and remove the bone spurs that are pinching the nerve.

So at this point, the C7 nerve has been freed up on both sides.

Now you're left with an empty space where the disc used to be.

So the question is, what do you do about it?

Well, you have to put a spacer over here, otherwise the two levels are going to collapse.

And you have to put a spacer of the correct size.

So the way we do that is we have a series of spacers, trial spacers, that we put in sequentially, and we see how snug the fit is.

When you finally find the correct fit, that is the size of the spacer that you need to put in there.

So in the case of this patient, we used a 6mm spacer

that gave us a very good snug fit both by tactile feel

and by looking at it from the side by the x-ray

so next we remove the trial

and we select a piece of bone a cadaver bone graft called the allograft

and just gently tamp it into place until

that bone is in the center of the disc space

and at this point you check another x-ray make sure everything

looks good you remove the distraction pins the threaded pins

that you put in earlier

and the next step is to put a plate in the front so that you can stabilize this whole construct.

It's very important to select a plate that's neither too long nor too short.

So you take the plate that you think is going to work, put it in the front of the neck, and put it on top of the vertebrae, and secure it temporarily with a temporary fixation pin.

You check an x-ray, make sure it's of the correct length.

Next, we take a drill and drill into the C7 bone.

Take a small screw and put it through the plate and secure the plate against C7.

We put a second screw into the C7 vertebra.

And similarly, we put two more screws into the C6.

At this point, you fight and tighten all the screws.

Make sure that the whole construct is nice and tight.

You look around to make sure that there's no bleeding.

And after checking everything to make sure it's okay, you close up the incision.

After waking the patient up and reversing anesthesia, the patient will be probably in the hospital either overnight or discharge home the same day, depending on how they're doing.

They're wearing a soft collar

and recovery in general for patients who have an anterior cervical discectomy infusion surgery is very rapid and very successful.

So I hope you enjoyed watching this video.

If you have any questions, please feel free to share in the comments below.

I always enjoy hearing from my viewers.

If you like this video, I would appreciate it if you could give it a like and subscribe to my channel.

Thank you for watching and see you next time.

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What You'll Learn

This video helps you build two key speaking skills: clear medical terminology pronunciation (e.g., "cervical radiculopathy," "discectomy") and structuring step-by-step explanations. You’ll also practice conveying complex processes in simple, conversational English—critical for clarity in professional or everyday contexts.

Listen For These Sounds

Notice connected speech patterns like linking in phrases such as "pinched nerve" (pinchdnerv) and "bone spur" (bonespur). Reductions are common too: "I'm going to" becomes "I'm gonna," and "you don't want to" shortens to "you don't wanna." Pay attention to how "we unpinch the nerve" flows with a slight pause between "unpinch" and "the" to emphasize the action.

Say It Like a Native

To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, stress key terms like "surgery," "nerve," and "spacer"—these carry the message. Use a steady, informative tone, slowing down for technical steps (e.g., "create some space between the c6 and c7 bones") and speeding up slightly for transitions ("So without further ado, let's get started"). Practice shadowing technique by repeating sentences immediately after the speaker to match their pace and intonation. This helps improve English pronunciation and fluency. For extra practice, use a shadowing site to record yourself and compare—you’ll notice how small adjustments in stress and linking make your speech sound more natural. Remember, shadow speak isn’t just about copying; it’s about internalizing the flow of English to communicate clearly, even when explaining complex topics like medical procedures.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · is done · they've been intubated
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	they've been intubated · you've confirmed · have removed

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Anterior Cervical Diskectomy & Fusion - Learn English Speaking with Video

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