ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses anterior revision surgeries rather than posterior procedures, which can be performed the same way as in primary surgery. Cervical total disc replacement (TDR) was developed as a strategy to minimize adjacent segment disease in the degenerative spine. The US Food and Drug Administration has required investigational device exemption studies for each device approved, resulting in more randomized, prospective data on this subject than any other topic in the recent spine literature. Patients need to be aware that if a TDR is planned, but intraoperative radiographic visualization of the target level is inadequate, the procedure will have to be converted to an Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Anterior discectomy and decompression is done as is typical for the surgeon and the specific pathology. Postoperative care of the patients is essentially no different from the typical care for the index procedure.
