The Relatively New Cervical Disc Replacement Procedure

Michael Warren Cluck, MD, PhD, has been practicing as an orthopedic neck and back surgeon in Greater San Jose, California, for over a decade. For the past 7 years, Michael Cluck, MD, PhD, has owned and managed Bay Area Spine Care. Michael Cluck, MD, PhD participates in multiple clinical studies focused on new techniques to treat disorders of the cervical (neck) spine.

Michael Cluck, MD, PhD leads his practice with an emphasis on educating patients on a range of clinical topics including ongoing innovations in the area of minimally invasive spine surgery. Cervical artificial disc replacement has emerged as an effective alternative to anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and is commonly used to treat disc disease and disorders of the cervical spine.

Unlike ACDF, which involves replacing disc tissue with bone graft and other biomaterials to promote fusion and prevent further motion, cervical disc replacement uses artificial mobile disc implants to replace the diseased discs . Developing these artificial disc implants has proven exceedingly challenging over the years, but recent clinical studies, which ranged from 2 to 10 years in duration, have shown that cervical artificial disc replacement is as successful as ACDF in treating cervical disc disease in terms of overall patient outcomes.