Abstract:[Objective] To compare the clinical efficacy of anterior cervical discectomy fusion (ACDF) under microscope versus direct vision for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. [Methods] A retrospective study was conducted on 65 patients who received ACDF for cervical spondylotic myelopathy from June 2015 to November 2018 in our hospital. According to the results of preoperative communication between doctors and patients, 30 patients were treated with ACDF under microscope, while the remaining 35 patients had ACDF performed under di- rect vision traditionally. Perioperative, follow- up and imaging data were compared between the two groups. [Results] All patient in both groups had operation conducted successfully. The microscopy group got recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in 1 case only, whereas the direct vision group had dural injury in 2 cases and recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in 3 cases, while none of them caused serious adverse conse- quences. The microscopy group proved significantly superior to the direct vision group in terms of operative time and intraoperative blood loss (P<0.05), nevertheless there were no significant differences in incision length, number of fluoroscopy, incision healing grade, postopera- tive ambulation time and hospital stay between the two groups (P>0.05). As time went during the followed-up ranged from 12 to 48 months with an average of (20.2±8.0) months, the pyramidal tract signs improved significantly (P<0.05), VAS and NDI scores decreased significantly (P<0.05), while JOA score increased significantly (P<0.05) in both groups. Although there were no statistically significant differences in VAS and NDI scores between the two groups at 6 months postoperatively and the latest follow-up (P<0.05), the microscopy group was signifi- cantly superior to the direct vision group in term of JOA score (P<0.05). Radiographically, the area of the spinal canal in the responsible seg- ment, the height of the intervertebral space and the cervical lordosis were significantly increased immediately postoperatively compared with those preoperatively in both groups (P<0.05) , whereas which remained unchanged at the latest follow-up compared with those immediately postoperatively (P>0.05) . At any corresponding time points, there was no significant difference in abovesaid imaging indexes between the two groups (P>0.05) . At the latest follow-up, the fusion rate was of 26/30 (86.7%) in the microscopy group, whereas 30/35 (85.7%) in the di- rect vision group, without a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05) . [Conclusion] Compared with traditional op- eration under direct vision, ACDF under microscope is more accurate, and has the advantages of less blood loss, shorter operation time and better functional recovery.