Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion, with and without plate (ACDF) is the procedure in which your surgeon will make a horizontal or vertical incision on one side of your neck. To reach the disc, soft tissue is moved aside. The disc irritating the nerve is then removed. Your doctor may then prepare the vertebrae for a fusion, in which the vertebrae above and below the removed disc are joined (fused). Fusion is done with a bone graft, but occasionally metal plates are added. After enlarging the space between the vertebrae, your doctor “plugs” the opening with a cylinder or wedge-shaped bone graft. In the healing process, the graft and vertebrae grow together.