Table 4.

Surgical approaches for cervical radiculopathy

Approach	Advantages	Disadvantages	Critical content in literatures
ACDF	Direct removal of anterior pathology; bone graft or cages; maintain cervical disc height and prevent kyphosis	Pseudarthrosis; hardware failure; ASD	25% of ASD in 10 years
CDA	Motion preservation; avoidance of non-union; prevention of adjacent segmental degeneration	Ectopic ossification; progressive decrease of neck motion; no long-term follow-up	FDA approved for single- and two-level
PCF	Minimal invasiveness; avoidance of fusion; preservation of neck motion and ASD; cost effectiveness	Incomplete decompression; deterioration of pathology at index level; facet violation	Improvement in about 90% of patients within a mean follow-up of 10 years

ACDF, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; ASD, adjacent segmental disease; CDA, cervical disc arthroplasty; FDA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; PCF, posterior cervical foraminotomy.