Artificial disc replacement (ADR) is a therapy option that preserves motion and protects against adjacent-segment pathology (ASP). This 10-year follow-up study of 153 people who had anterior decompression or fusion surgery after cervical degenerative radiculopathy (ISRCTN registration no. 44347115). The Swedish Spine Registry provided scores on the Neck Disability Index (NDI), EQ-5D, and visual analog scale for neck and arm pain, analyzed using ANCOVA. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to represent secondary surgical procedures gathered from medical data. After an MRI and flexion-extension radiographs, the ASP was assessed using the Miyazaki categorization method.
Following-up on ten individuals resulted in 143 participants (80 underwent ADR and 65 underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion). In terms of patient-reported outcome measures, there were no differences between groups (10-year difference in NDI scores 1.7 points, 95% CI −5.1 to 8.5, p = 0.61). Nineteen participants in the ADR group (24%) and nine in the fusion group (14%) underwent additional surgical procedures. The ADR group had a greater reoperation rate due to 11 female patients loosening the device. The rates of ASP-related reoperation were comparable between groups, as evidenced by an MRI assessment of ASP that revealed no differences between groups (p = 0.21). The follow-up research compared ADR to fusion surgery and included MRI data for ASP assessment. After anterior decompression for cervical degenerative radiculopathy, the authors reported no benefit of ADR over fusion surgery.
