%0 Journal Article %T Evaluation of arthrodesis and cervical alignment in the surgical results of cervical discectomy using polymethylmetacrylate %A Mudo %A Marcelo Luis %A Amantea %A Andrea Vieira %A Joaquim %A Andrei Fernandes %A Prandini %A Mirto Nelso %A Cavalheiro %A S¨¦rgio %J Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria %D 2009 %I Academia Brasileira de Neurologia - ABNEURO %R 10.1590/S0004-282X2009000500017 %X background and objectives: surgical treatment of cervical radiculopathy with or without myelopathy is a controversy issue, although anterior discectomy is the most common form of treatment. method: we present the evaluation of the arthrodesis' rate and cervical alignment in 48 patients with cervical degenerative disease (cdd) submitted to anterior cervical discectomy with interposition of polymethylmetacrylate (pmma). odom and n¨¹rick scales were used to evaluation of functional status before and after surgery. cervical spine x-rays were used to access arthrodesis and alignment, at least 2 years after the procedure. results: excellent and good results (odom i and ii) were obtained in 91% of the patients with radiculopathy and in 69% of those with myelopathy. using the chi square test of independence (1% of significance), there was no association between excellent and good clinical results with the presence of arthrodesis verified in cervical x-rays. the presence of cervical alignment had association with good results, whereas the misalignment was associated with unfavorable outcomes. two patients died: one cervical hematoma and other from graft migration with cord compression. conclusions: cervical alignment was more important than fusion to achieve good surgical results in cdd. %K discectomy %K polymethylmetacrilate (pmma) %K arthrodesis %K fusion %K cervical alignment. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0004-282X2009000500017&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en