Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery have traditionally been performed in a hospital setting. While some cervical spine conditions involving severe spinal cord compression and complicated deformity will continue being performed in hospital settings, most relatively young and healthy patients with nerve root compression or soft cervical disk herniations are routinely being treated with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion in an outpatient surgery setting. The relatively avascular and intermuscular approach to the anterior cervical spine combined with the illumination and magnification provided by new-generation operating microscopes have made one and two level anterior cervical fusion and disk arthroplasty a safe and predictable surgery in the outpatient setting. Here's an update.