What is the medical term for surgical fixation of two levels of the spine to limit motion?

• A. Fusion
• B. Ganglion cyst
• C. Hearing loss
• D. Heart attack

Answer: (A)

The term you’re looking for is spinal fusion. In this procedure, two adjacent vertebrae are joined together, usually with bone graft material and hardware like screws and rods, to create a single, stable segment. This eliminates motion at the fused levels, which helps relieve pain and stabilize the spine in conditions such as degenerative disease, instability, or after certain injuries. The other terms describe unrelated conditions—ganglion cysts are fluid-filled lumps near joints, hearing loss is a sensory impairment, and a heart attack is a myocardial infarction—so they don’t fit the description of surgically fixing spine levels to limit motion.