The choice of the best surgery after single level anterior cervical spine discectomy: a systematic review.

Background: The anterior cervical discectomy (ACD) is often used to treat spinal cord and nerve root compressions and the frequent use of interbody fusion (ACDF) has popularized it as a common practice associated or not with cages or plates for maintaining the intervertebral disc height.

Objective: The aim of this study is to clarify the effectiveness of ACD compared with ACDF, with or without the use of anterior cervical spacer (Cage) or instrumentation with plate fixation (ACDFI).

Methods: randomized controlled trials or quasi-randomized trials were selected for analysis in one segmental level.