Clinical and surgical characteristics of patients undergoing ACDF with either UCF or MLCF.a
| Characteristics | MLCF (n = 562) | UCF (n = 281) | P |
| Neurological diagnosis, % (n) | <0.0001 | ||
| Myelopathy | 48.8 (274) | 63.0 (177) | |
| Radiculopathy | 33.1 (186) | 11.4 (32) | |
| Myelopathy and radiculopathy | 18.2 (102) | 25.6 (72) | |
| SCSC observed presurgery, % (n) | 14.8 (83) | 22.8 (64) | 0.004 |
| Spondylolisthesis diagnosis, % (n) | 9.4 (53) | 13.5 (38) | 0.071 |
| Extremities with NS, % (n) | 0.061 | ||
| Upper | 66.7 (375) | 58.0 (163) | |
| Lower | 2.7 (15) | 3.9 (11) | |
| Upper and lower | 28.6 (161) | 36.7 (103) | |
| Not available | 2.0 (11) | 1.4 (4) | |
| ASA classification, % (n) | 0.377 | ||
| I | 0.7 (4) | 0.7 (2) | |
| II | 50.0 (281) | 43.8 (123) | |
| III | 48.0 (270) | 54.5 (153) | |
| IV | 1.3 (7) | 1.1 (3) | |
| Approach surgeon utilized, % (n) | 3.9 (22) | 3.6 (10) | 0.800 |
| Graft used, % (n) | 92.7 (521) | 94.7 (266) | 0.282 |
| Neuromonitoring used, % (n) | 53.9 (303) | 49.8 (140) | 0.262 |
| Fusion device, % (n) | 0.884 | ||
| Plate alone | 50.0 (281) | 50.5 (142) | |
| Plate + cage | 50.0 (281) | 49.5 (139) |
Abbreviations: ACDF, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; ASA, American Society of Anesthesiologists; MLCF, middle-to-lower cervical fusion; NS, neurological symptoms; SCSC, spinal cord signal change; UCF, upper cervical fusion.
Note: Boldface indicates statistically significant comparison.
↵a Patients were classified as UCF or MLCF based on the inclusion of C3 to C4 level in the ACDF construct.