I have a herniated disc in my neck. Why does my surgeon want to operate on more than one location in my neck? Isn't the sore disc just in one place?

A recent study presented the results of a surgical procedure that uses a bone graft from the outer edge of the lower leg (fibula) to fuse the bones in the neck. Nearly 150 patients had this procedure. Success was judged by whether the neck bones had grown together two years after surgery. 

Success rates were 92 percent for patients who had surgery at two levels and 84 percent for patients who had surgery at three levels. These numbers were hardly different. And there were few complications from surgery. These results suggest that most patients get good results from surgery at multiple levels when the graft is taken from the fibula bone.