Fig. 1.

Average neck disability scores of patients with good or moderate to severe outcomes at the time of the survey related to the year of surgery. In blue the average scores of moderate to severe patients for each year of surgery between 1985 and 2000 and in black a trend line was added to reveal an increase in complaints after a longer follow up period after single level anterior cervical spine surgery. In pink the average scores of patients with a good outcome. Between brackets are the total years of follow up at the time of the survey