Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is an established procedure for the treatment of cervical spine disorders, such as herniated discs, spinal canal stenosis, or advanced degenerative disc disease. This procedure enables removal of the intervertebral disc through an anterior approach, followed by fusion of the affected segment.
Plate
In some cases, additional placement of a plate is advisable or even necessary. When placing a plate, care should be taken to ensure that the plate does not cover more than 50 % of the last vertebral body affected by the plate in order to avoid adjacent osteophytes[^3]
Imaging
Complications
Complication rates for ACDF range from 13.2 % to 19.3 % in different studies[^2]. The most common complications include:
postoperative hematomas
Aggravation of Myelopathy
symptomatic recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy
wound infections
Aggravation of Radiculopathy
Horner syndrome
respiratory insufficiency
esophageal perforation
instrumentation failure
Pseudarthrosis occurs depending on the number of fused segments, ranging from 0 to 4.3 % for one segment to 56 % for four segments.
One of the most common long-term complications is adjacent segment degeneration, which involves degenerative changes in the segments adjacent to the surgical site. According to a study by Hilibrand et al. (1999), the risk of adjacent segment degeneration after ACDF surgery is approximately 2.9 % per year[^1].
