by AceMedEd

Teach card · keep it in your scrub pocket

Anterior cervical discectomy

Ask during the case

  1. During the exposure, once platysma is open: "Which structures are lateral to my finger, which are medial, and which nerve in the medial group are we protecting?"
  2. On the level-check film: "Count down from C2 for me. How do you know the marker is in C5–C6 and not the disc above or below?"
  3. During the discectomy: "What marks our lateral limit, what lies just beyond it, and what is behind the posterior longitudinal ligament?"

Point at: the medial edges of longus colli and then the uncinate processes, while they name what lies just lateral to each.

End of day: "Draw me the C5–C6 slice with today's approach from skin to disc, then a lateral C-spine with the level marked." Three minutes, no notes.

Where this kit and your technique differ, yours wins.

Send this to your students

The night before. They prep alone, redraw at turnover, and get a cold check tomorrow morning. They won't see these questions.

Open the student page

Reviewed by Mehdi “AC” Talle, D.O., November 2026. Sources: Netter, Gray's Anatomy and Hoppenfeld's surgical exposures. Teaching schematic, not to scale; anatomy and technique vary. Management and indications are left to you on purpose.