Introduction: Majority of the cases of cervical radiculopathy are due to the anterior relations of the cervical nerve root, with disc herniation and uncovertebral osteophytes. The standard techniques of surgery were posterior laminoforaminotomy and anterior discectomy with or without fusion. The main limitation of these techniques being excessive bleeding and fusion related adjacent segment disease. The disk preserving functional cervical disc surgery is minimally invasive anterior cervical disc preserving technique of upper vertebral transcorporeal anterior microforaminotomy. Objectives: To assess the Disk Preserving Functional Cervical Disc Surgery for cervical radiculopathy cases. Methodology: This is a non randomized prospective study carried among 11 consecutive patients who were operated for cervical radiculopathy with the new technique at the Department of Neurosurgery, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. The patients were considered for surgery on the basis of Inclusion criteria: Unilateral cervical radiculopathy not responding to conservative treatment of more than 6 weeks (or earlier if patients exhibited profound weakness). Imaging studies were corresponding to the clinical features. Results: The majority of patients mean preoperative disc height was in the 5.5 to 6.0 group. One patient disc height was in the 6.0 to 6.5 group. The mean disc height was 5.59 mm preoperatively and 5.49 mm postoperatively. There was no significant reduction in the disc height postoperatively. The spinal motion was preserved at the operated level in all patients. Conclusion: The modified transcorporeal anterior cervical microforaminotomy technique is a minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of cervical radiculopathy as it preserves most of the disc tissue.

Keywords: Cervical disc surgery; Cervical radiculopathy; Disk preserving technique.