The Recurrence of Symptoms After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.

Abstract

Objectives This study aimedto evaluate the recurrence symptoms rate after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for one year and seek thecommoncervicalvertebral disk affected inatertiary center in Saudi Arabiaover the past fiveyears. Methods This is asingle-center, cross-sectional study conducted on patients followed inour centerfrom January 2016 to December 2022.All patients whowereolder than 18 andunderwentACDF were included. Results Out of 77 patients, 43 (55.8%) have experiencedarecurrence of symptoms aftertheACDF operation.The highest rate of recurrent symptoms was neck pain22(28.6%), left upper limb numbness20(26%),and right upper limb numbness16(20.8%).It was found that shoulder pain recurredafter one level ofACDF insixpatients out of10 (60%), and only one (10%) patient experienced shoulder pain after two-level ACDF. Conclusion ACDF hasahighrate ofrecurrenceof symptoms, and the most common type of ACDF was two levels. Most symptoms were neck pain and upper limb radicularpain. However,there is a lack of studies. We recommend conducting more studies on the secondary managementofrecurrentsymptoms post-ACDF.