Aim: The authors compared the incidence of radiologically documented and/or symptomatic adjacent segment degeneration in and between patients who underwent anterior or posterior single-level, simple discectomy.
Material and methods: 79 patients were clinically and radiologically examined for adjacent segment degeneration (ASD). The results were compared to evaluate which approach was predominant for adjacent segment disc degeneration.
Results: ASD was found in 57 of a total of 79 patients. 24% of the patients demonstrated clinical and radiographic evidence and 48% of the patients demonstrated only radiographic evidence of ASD. Both anterior and posterior single level simple discectomy had similar rates for adjacent segment disease (p>0.05) . ASD was found to appear earlier in patients who had anterior cervical discectomy (4.78 vs 9.85 years, p:0.005). Symptomatic evidence of ASD was found to start earlier than radiological evidence of ASD (4.67 vs 7.63 years p:0.003). Radiographic evidence of adjacent segment degeneration was observed more commonly compared to symptomatic evidence of ASD (38 vs 19 patients p:0.002).
Conclusion: Although, radiographic and clinical evidence of ASD is inevitable for both simple cervical discectomy procedures, neither anterior nor posterior simple cervical discectomy is the predominant approach for causing ASD.