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Surgical Technique
An anterior cervical discectomy is the most common surgical procedure to treat damaged cervical discs. Its goal is to relieve pressure on the nerve roots or on the spinal cord by removing the ruptured disc. It is called anterior because the cervical spine is reached through a small incision in the front of the neck (anterior means front). During the surgery, the soft tissues of the neck are separated and the disc is removed. Sometimes the space between the vertebrae are left open. However, in order to maintain the normal height of the disc space, the surgeon may choose to fill the space with a bone graft.
A bone graft is a small piece of bone, either taken from the patient's body (usually from the pelvic area) or from a bone bank. This piece of bone fills the disc space and ideally will join or fuse the vertebrae together. This is called fusion. It usually takes a few months for the vertebrae to completely fuse. In some cases, some instrumentation (such as plates or screws) may also be used to add stability to the spine.
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