A study published in The Spine Journal concluded that patient improvement in neck pain was greater than improvement in arm pain following cervical disc replacements.
The study was authored by 11 medical professionals, and studied 125 patients who had undergone a one or two level cervical disc replacement and had a follow up six months after the procedure.
It based its findings on patient reported outcomes, and created a neck disability index, a visual analog scale for neck and arm pain, a short form physical health score and a short form mental health score to rate each patient on, to determine overall success.
Though patients with neck pain had greater results overall following the replacement, both neck and arm surgery patients reported significant improvements in pain levels.