Comparisons of Two-level Discectomy and Fusion with Cage Alone versus Single-level Corpectomy and Fusion with Plate in the Treatment of Cervical Degenerative Disc Disease

OBJECTIVE: To compare the radiologic parameters and clinical outcomes of two-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) with cage alone versus single-level anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) with plate in the treatment of two-level contiguous cervical degenerative disc disease. METHODS: Of all 38 consecutive patients who were included in this study, 22 patients underwent on a two-level contiguous ACDF with cage alone (ACDF-CA group), 16 patients underwent a single-level ACCF with plate (ACCF-P group). We compared following parameters between these two groups; perioperative parameters (hospital stays, blood loss and operation duration), clinical parameters (Japanese Orthopedic Association scores and Odom's criteria) and radiologic parameters segmental height ratio (SHR), segmental lordotic angle (SLA), global lordotic angle (GLA) and fusion rate). RESULTS: The amount of operative blood loss in the ACCF-P group was higher than in the ACDF-CA group with statistical significance (p<0.05). Clinical outcomes and fusion rates were similar between groups. The postoperative SHRs in both groups were higher than that of preoperative period with statistical significance; however, these values significantly decreased at the last follow up period. The SLA increased during the immediate postoperative period, and then mild decreased. The values of GLA in both groups did show variable differences according to each time frame. CONCLUSION: The results of ACDF-CA were comparable with ACCF-P with regard to clinical and radiologic outcomes in contiguous two-level cervical fusion. A two-level ACDF-CA as a treatment modality for two-level contiguous cervical disc disease may be a worthwhile method as an alternative to single-level ACCF-P.