Primary and secondary outcomes of patients undergoing ACDF with either UCF or MLCF.a
| Characteristics | MLCF (n = 562) | UCF (n = 281) | P |
| LOS, mean (95% CI) | 1.6 (1.4–1.8) | 3.0 (2.6–3.5) | <0.0001 |
| Discharge location, % (n) | <0.0001 | ||
| Home | 92.7 (521) | 84.0 (236) | |
| Nursing facility | 0.4 (2) | 1.1 (3) | |
| In-patient | 1.6 (9) | 9.3 (26) | |
| Outpatient | 5.3 (30) | 5.7 (16) | |
| NS postsurgery (n = 628), % (n) | <0.0001 | ||
| Resolved/improved | 75.8 (313) | 60.5 (130) | |
| No change/worsen | 24.2 (100) | 39.5 (85) | |
| Complications, % (n) | |||
| At least 1 major complication | 13.0 (73) | 15.1 (42) | 0.435 |
| New neurological deficit | 5.2 (29) | 5.3 (15) | 0.913 |
| Revision surgery | 3.0 (17) | 4.3 (12) | 0.350 |
| At least 1 minor complication | 18.7 (105) | 29.5 (83) | 0.0004 |
| Dysphagia | 15.0 (84) | 22.1 (62) | 0.010 |
Abbreviations: ACDF, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; CI, confidence interval; LOS, length of stay; MLCF, middle-to-lower cervical fusion; NS, neurological symptoms; 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.