Abstract
The anterior cervical approaches are generally used for decompression of the anterior pathology to the spinal cord. Because of less invasiveness to the cervical muscles, postoperative wound pain and axial pain are less as compared with those in the posterior cervical approaches. There are a variety of anterior approaches for the patients with cervical spondylosis, which include the standard anterior cervical decompression and fixation method via the interbody space, corpectomy methods, key-hole foraminotomy without fixation, and so on. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. Learning the characteristics and indications of the different methods is an important step in advancing the career of a spinal surgeon. In our practice, the best method is selected based on the efficacy and least invasiveness for each patient. In this paper, the essentials of each surgical method and selection criteria are reported.
