Cervical Disc Arthroplasty: Evolution, Evidence, and Future Directions in Motion-Preservation Surgery.

J Bone Joint Surg Am · Oct 09 2026 · Recent

Kim MT, Lee S, Goh GS, Riew KD

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts

Spine Adult Reconstruction

SUMMARY — THE REDUCTIONCervical disc arthroplasty matches ACDF outcomes for 1- and 2-level degenerative disease with durable motion, though the adjacent-segment benefit is modest and standardized failure reporting and revision algorithms are still needed.
Abstract, as published

➢ Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) provides clinical outcomes comparable with those of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for 1-level and 2-level cervical degenerative disc disease (DDD), with durable long-term motion preservation.➢ Although CDA is associated with lower rates of adjacent-segment pathology compared with ACDF, the absolute risk reduction at longer follow-up is modest and methodological heterogeneity across trials limits definitive conclusions.➢ Expanded indications including multilevel (≥3-level) CDA, hybrid constructs, and other situations that were previously considered contraindicated during U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) trials have shown promising short-term to intermediate-term results in more recent studies.➢ As CDA utilization increases, standardized failure reporting and the development of evidence-based revision algorithms are critical to optimize long-term outcomes.

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