Cervical Movement Control Before and After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion

Degenerative cervical disc disease can cause neck pain, nerve symptoms, dizziness, and problems with balance and head movement control. The neck contains many sensory receptors that provide information about head position and movement to the brain. When cervical discs degenerate or compress nearby structures, this sensory communication may be disrupted. As a result, patients may experience reduced accuracy and coordination of head movements. Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a standard surgical procedure used to relieve nerve or spinal cord compression caused by cervical disc disease. The procedure is effective in reducing pain and neurological symptoms. However, it is not well understood whether ACDF also improves the way the neck and nervous system work together to control head movement. The purpose of this study is to evaluate early changes in cervical movement control after ACDF. Patients scheduled for ACDF will be assessed before surgery and again one week after surgery. A group of healthy participants without neck pain will be assessed at the same time interval for comparison. Cervical movement control will be measured using a computer-based head-tracking task. During this task, participants follow a moving target on a screen using controlled head movements. The system records measures of tracking accuracy and timing. The primary research question is whether ACDF results in measurable short-term improvements in objective cervical movement control compared with healthy individuals over the same time period. It is hypothesized that patients undergoing ACDF will demonstrate improvement in specific movement-control measures after surgery. However, broader patterns of movement-control impairment may not fully normalize in the early postoperative period. The results of this study may improve understanding of how cervical spine surgery affects sensorimotor function and may help inform postoperative rehabilitation strategies.