WHAT'S THAT THING ON KEANU'S NECK?

I'm so glad you asked! BECAUSE, I believe I may have the answer. YEP! I'm going to get as medical as I possibly can on this. Those of you who lose the insides of their stomachs easily had better leave! =)

My Story, and what Keanu said...

The first time I saw it was when Keanu appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (October/November 1997). Another fan, whom I correspond with through e-mail, asked me if I knew what it was. She had discussed it with friends and they came to the conclusion that it was either a tattoo(!?), a hicky(!!??), or a scar. Because of the shape, size and colour I thought it would most logically be "door number 3"; the scar. But from what!? I was feeling so out of touch with Keanu news!
I went and visited the Keanunet News page where they meantioned the surgury. OHHH! So that's what it was! Then I figured it must've been for those motorcycle accidents he's always having. But he hasn't had a big one recently so I was really curious about it.
Fortunately, a few weeks ago (spring 1998) they re-aired the Keenan Ivory Wayans Show he "guested" on and I taped the interview. For those of you who haven't seen it, he talks about the surgury and uses some fairly strange, un-medical terms, which would be, at the same time, fairly accurate.

Part of the Keenan Ivory Wayans Show interview:

[Keenan]- Now, we were talking backstage about your scar...
[Keanu]- Yes.
[Keenan]- ...on your neck. You just had a operation from a previous motorcycle accident.
[Keanu]- Yeah. Well, um...I don't know. I had, ah, 2 disks removed from between my vertebra, and then they, ah, took some, ah, cadaver bone and stuck it in there as placement, and they took a steel plate. [Makes motion indicating behind or beside] And they want 3 of my vertebra to fuse.
[Keenan]- Wow.
[Keanu]- And it's just from motorcycle accidents. I played hockey as a kid. I'm just a terrible driver. I keep crashing.
[continued with jokes about it setting off metal detectors at the airport...which is funny now because of that scene in The Matrix...=) ]


The Spine

*The following articles were taken from this site....

* If you were to look at the spine, it would resemble a stack of thick mugs, vertebrae, with coasters or disks, cushioning their movements. Each mug is locked together above and below with little feet that stick out on either side, about the 10 and 2 o’clock positions. These feet then join together in the middle (where the handle of the mug could be thought to lie) into a nubbin of bone sticking backwards. On top is the skull, while on the bottom this stack of bones rests on the pelvic bones.

The entire structure is bound together with fibrous bands of tissue, ligaments, to keep it aligned, and a number of large muscles run alongside the spine to stabilize the structure while allowing it to twist, bend, and sometimes shimmy. This column of bones bears all the weight of the head, arms, upper body and belly, loading it onto the pelvic bones- in an average sized adult about 100 lbs. onto an area of about five square inches. Imagine the weight of a full shopping cart on the palm of your hand, day in, day out. Now imagine that shopping cart jumping, climbing stairs, falling and sometimes carrying little passengers as well.

by Frederic J. Curlin, M.D. Dr. Curlin is a board certified anesthesiologist with a subspecialty in pain management and is associated with Columbia El Dorado Hospital in Tucson, Arizona.


What To Do When You Have A Pain In The Neck!

Just about everyone suffers from neck pain from time to time. Although injuries can lead to neck pain, there are a number of non-traumatic reasons for necks to hurt.

Often neck pain is found in a certain distribution, which may include the back of the neck, the left or right shoulder or shoulder blade.

Patients are usually classified into two groups - those with neck pain alone, and those who have neck and arm pain. The first of those with neck pain alone may have an arthritic condition, or they may have overexerted themselves and injured their necks. The vast majority of these patients will never need surgery. They can be treated using a soft cervical collar, local heat and anti-inflammatory agents. The second group typically has some sort of nerve involvement. They are the people who may have pain or numbness in their arm caused by a pinched nerve in the neck. A majority of these patients also can be treated without surgery. Stronger medications, rest, cervical collars and sometimes physical therapy are used.

A small percentage, however, will require surgery to relieve their pain. Most surgeries require removing some disk material and sometimes removing bone spurs, then fusing the vertebrae together. Other patients just need a bone spur removed with no fusion.

Those who do have surgery can expect a 85-95 percent success rate - among the highest success rates for any type of spinal surgery we perform.

by David Urquia, M.D. Dr. Urquia is an orthopedic surgeon associated with Henrico Doctors Hospital in Richmond, Virginia.


The Spine (other sources)

Okay. According to my trusty little book, "Body Facts" by Dr. Sarah Brewer, the spine is made up of 33 bones called vertebrae, and each is separated by pads of cartilage, also called interverbral disks. "These have a tough, flexable outer case and a soft, jellylike center, and cushion and protect the vertebrae." It also says they "act as shock absorbers to prevent damage from sudden jolts."
So I presume Keanu had had a few too many sudden jolts while riding his 'bike, playing hockey, doing those crazy stunts, etc., and those pads are just not tough enough to keep up with him!

Why was it removed?

I guess it was removed because there isn't much point in having non-functioning cartillage in your back. Especailly since it wasn't helping to support the vertebrae, and prehaps even causing the vertebrae to pinch nerves and cause a lot of pain.
What I don't understand is why did Keanu say it was replaced with cadavar bone. Cadavar actually means stiff, refering to the stiffness of something which is dead, so I don't understand why they'd want to replace something flexable and jellylike with something hard and dead!? Seems kind of strange. Also, similarly, why would they want two vertebrae to fuse if they're meant to be supported/cushioned by something? He's going to end up with an awfully stiff neck!


On July 14, 1999 I recieved an email from Suzyq1754, who was able to clarify much of my stupidity and confusion:
>The problem was probably not with the discs themselves although they would
>have to be removed in order to stabilize and decompress the cervical spine.
>At some point in his life he damaged the vertebrae that the discs lay between,
>leading to degeneration of the vertebrae themselves. As the vertebrae collapse
>the nerves get pinched leading to loss of function of the extremities which
>these nerves control. If the condition is untreated the spinal cord itself can
>become compressed. The only way to stabilize the spine is to remove the discs
>as well as the parts of the vertebrae that are collapsing and use a bone graft
>and metal plate to support the damaged area thereby relieving any impingement.
>The graft has to be attached to the healthy vertebrae above and below the
>damaged ones. That is what he meant by fused vertebrae, and yes it does give
>you a "stiff neck." If I am correct Keanu would have lost about 35% of the
>motion in his neck due to the fused vertebrae. The technical term for the
>condition I am describing is Cervical Foraminal Stenosis. Look it up!

<~To Come~>

I'll look up the term "Cervical Forminal Stenosis" and answer all the following: (I unfortunately cannot sit at the computer any longer - 4 hours is quite enough!)
Why was it replaced with cadavar bone?
What exactly is the metal plate there for?
Why do they want the vertebrae to fuse?

Have we got any *doctors* out there who'd like to help me out?
*(Knowledgeable people of any sort, really!)*


looks like there's some iodine around the scar there...

Hope that was informative for you!
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If you have any ideas for another one of these sorts of things I could do, I'd like to hear from you!