COMPARISON OF ANTERIOR CERVICAL FUSIONS USING AUTOGENOUS BONE-GRAFT OBTAINED FROM THE CERVICAL-VERTEBRAE TO THE MODIFIED SMITH-ROBINSON TECHNIQUE

Anterior cervical discectomy and interbody grafting provide excellent results in treating cervical radiculopathy. This prospective study com pares the results of the technique obtaining autogenous bone from the cervical vertebrae for grafting to the modified Smith-Robinson techniq ue using autogenous iliac crest graft. Seven levels in six patients we re fused using the vertebral body autograft technique and 43 levels in 40 patients using the standard technique. All patients had radiculopa thy and neck pain. Statistically significant differences in fusion rat e (4/7 vertebral body autograft; 40/43 modified Smith-Robinson) (p = 0 .029), disc height maintenance (p = 0.001), and neck pain improvement (p = 0.05) occurred between the techniques. We do not recommend verteb ral body autograft over the modified Smith-Robinson technique for ante rior cervical fusion following discectomy.