Anterior Cervical Decompression and Fusion Accelerates Adjacent Segment Degeneration.

The article presents a study which examines the role of anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) of the cervical spine to the progression of adjacent segment degeneration. In the course of the research, a 10-year follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on sixty four patients who underwent ACDF and 201 asymptomatic volunteers was conducted. The result shows that the ACDF patients had a higher incidence of progression of disc degeneration at adjacent segments than the control subjects.