Cervical Disc Arthroplasty for the Treatment of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: What’S the Evidence? Publisher



Bautista A ; Liu IZ ; Mehta AI ; Vedantam A ; Goodwin CR ; Evaniew N ; Ter Wengel PV ; Guha D ; Rahimimovaghar V ; Quisling R ; Palmer J ; Jackson KL ; Devine JG ; Wilson JR Show All Authors
Source: Global Spine Journal Published:2026

Abstract

Study Design: Systematic Literature Review. Objective: The aim of this literature review is to examine the results of total disc arthroplasty in the setting of cervical myelopathy. Methods: A systematic review of the relevant literature examining the efficacy of cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) in patients with cervical myelopathy was conducted using the Medline database. Results: Our query identified 288 potentially relevant articles. After eliminating duplicate articles and screening by title and abstract 115 articles underwent full-text review. Of these, 15 were deemed relevant to the research questions posed. Evaluation of references identified 2 additional relevant articles. Conclusion: Evaluation of outcomes measures, radiographic analysis, and failure due to implant related complications is equivalent in comparing CDA to Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF). From the literature available, the outcomes in patients undergoing cervical disc arthroplasty are at least equal to those of ACDF. The concern for persistent symptoms in patients treated with CDA due to the dynamic component on myelopathy is theoretic and not supported by the available literature. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).