Use of Cervical Disk Arthroplasty to Treat Noncontiguous Cervical Disk Herniations.

Abstract

Cervical disk arthroplasty is now a widely accepted alternative to anterior cervical interbody fusion, which is known to reduce normal cervical motion and increase the incidence of adjacent segment disease. Although multiple studies report the use of cervical disk arthroplasty to treat multilevel cervical disease, this is the first report in the literature detailing the placement of multiple, noncontiguous artificial disks. We describe a 41-year-old male who presented with myelopathy and left upper extremity radiculopathy resulting from 2 cervical disk herniations separated by a normal intervening level. He underwent an anterior cervical diskectomy and placement of an artificial disk prosthesis at cervical (C) 4-5 and C6-7 while leaving C5-6 intact. This approach serves to preserve cervical motion, spinal stability, and lordosis across all 3 levels, thus demonstrating that it is a viable alternative to a multilevel anterior cervical interbody fusion.