@chuva7025 With spinal fusion, a bad disc is removed and that space must be filled with something to support the spine. It may be a cage of some type manufactured of PEEK (a type of plastic) or a metal such as titanium, or the space can be filled with a bone graft sourced from bone bank (cadaver bone matrix) or a graft if bone sourced from the patient’s pelvis. The fusion happens when the bone from vertebrae above and below that graft or hardware grows into that space. Surgeons use bone ground off during the surgery to seed the bone growth in a space designed into the spacer. Mine was a donor bone graft milled to the correct shape and thickness with a space to receive the bone spurs removed during the surgery. There was nothing more than the bone disc and I stayed in hard collar until it fused. Often with cervical fusions, there is a metal plate screwed to the front of the spine over the surgical area for stability before healing has fused the bone. It serves no purpose later on after the fusion is complete and if there is another surgery later on, that plate may be removed. I had to be careful not to twist or bend to make sure my neck was stable for the success of the procedure. I have nothing but natural bone there. The donor bone is just the hard mineral matrix with the bone building cells removed and all of it sterilized so when my bone moves into the neighborhood, there is no tissue rejection. My body reacts to metals, so a fusion without hardware was a good choice for me. Great question! Thanks for asking! Is this something you are considering? Not all surgeons would offer this, and this was how they did cervical fusion before the plates were developed.