Comparative study of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion by anterior cervical plate and stand-alone cervical cage

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Anterior cervical discectomy (ACD) was used for management of degenerative cervical disc disorders (DCDD) in previous days. Further research and developments in management of DCDD led to evolution of standard and widely used operative technique as anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) by either anterior cervical plate (ACDF-ACP) with bone grafting or stand-alone cage (ACDF-SAC). There is less data available in literature regarding when and where to use ACDF-ACP and ACDF-SAC.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> The study was conducted on 20 patients operated in Government Medical College and Hospital and Pacific Hospital and Research Centre, Aurangabad from June 2018 to March 2020. These patients divided into group A - 10 patients, operated by ACDF-SAC which are further divided as group Aa - 6 patients - operated for single level ACDF-SAC and group Ab - 4 patients - operated for two level ACDF-SAC, group B - 10 patients, operated by ACDF-ACP which are further divided as group Ba - 5 patients - operated for single level ACDF-ACP and group Bb - 5 patients - operated for two level ACDF-ACP. Patients evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively using X-ray cervical spine anteroposterior (AP) and lateral views, MRI cervical spine, visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, Robinson’s criteria and Cobb’s angle.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> In our study we found, ACDF-SAC has small incision size, less intraoperative time, easy to carry out for surgeons, less intraoperative complications and better clinical outcome as compared to ACDF-ACP. Whereas only radiological results were better in ACDF-ACP than ACDF-SAC.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> ACDF-SAC is superior to ACDF-ACP for appropriately selected patients and in well experienced hands.</p>