Outcomes After Cervical Disc Arthroplasty Versus Stand-Alone Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion: A Meta-Analysis

STUDY DESIGN: Systemic review and meta-analysis. OBJECTIVES: To review and compare surgical outcomes for patients undergoing stand-alone anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) versus cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) for the treatment of cervical spine disease. METHODS: A systematic search was performed on PubMed, Medline, and the Cochrane Library. Comparative trials measuring outcomes of patients undergoing CDA and stand-alone ACDF for degenerative spine disease in the last 10 years were selected for inclusion. After data extraction and quality assessment, statistical analysis was performed with R software metafor package. The random-effects model was used if there was heterogeneity between studies; otherwise, the fixed-effects model was used. RESULTS: In total, 12 studies including 859 patients were selected for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Patients undergoing stand-alone ACDF had a statistically significant increase in postoperative segmental angles (mean difference 0.85° [95% confidence interval = 0.35° to 1.35°], P = .0008). Patients undergoing CDA had a decreased rate of developing adjacent segmental degeneration (risk ratio = 0.56 [95% confidence interval = −0.06 to 1.18], P = .0745). Neck Disability Index, Japanese Orthopedic Association score, Visual Analogue Scale of the arm and neck, as well as postoperative cervical angles were similar between the 2 treatments. CONCLUSIONS: When compared with CDA, stand-alone ACDF offers similar clinical outcomes for patients and leads to increased postoperative segmental angles. We encourage further blinded randomized trials to compare rates of adjacent segmental degeneration and other postoperative outcomes between these 2 treatments options.