Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
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Review Meta Analysis
Outpatient anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: A meta-analysis.
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) performed as an outpatient has become increasingly common for treating cervical spine pathology, largely due to its cost savings compared with inpatient ACDF. Nearly all outpatient ACDF patient reports have originated from single-center studies, with the procedure yet to be addressed via a meta-analysis of the peer-reviewed literature. The Entrez gateway of the PubMed database was used to conduct a comprehensive literature search for articles published in English up to 3/9/16. ⋯ Nearly two-thirds of outpatient ACDFs underwent single-level fusion, with virtually none undergoing 3+ level ACDF. Outpatient ACDF is safe, with a low readmission rate and complication rates comparable to those (2-5%) associated with inpatient ACDF. These findings support an argument for increasing ACDFs performed on an outpatient basis in appropriately selected patients.