Early Morbidity of Multilevel Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion with Plating for Spondylosis: Does the Number of Levels Influence Early Complications? A Single Surgeon's Experience in 519 Consecutive Patients.

Study Design This is a retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with plating (ACDFP) cases. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate within a clinical practice evidence-based results of short-term morbidity with multilevel ACDFP. Methods Clinical morbidity, length of hospital stay, visual analog scale (VAS) and Odom scores, Neck Disability Index (NDI), hardware failure, and return-to-work (RTW) status were prospectively collected in an electronic database for 678 patients who underwent 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-level ACDFP during an 8-year period.