Seventy-seven patients with the cervical disc disease were surgically treated using operative microscope and air drill since 1976. These cases were analyzed with regard to operative methods and the criteria for selection of the operative method. The methods were selected by means of the preoperative neurological and radiological findings. The operative methods included: anterior discectomy with or without fusion, vertebrectomy with fusion, and laminectomy in which en bloc wide laminectomy was utilized. When selection of the operative methods was made according to the pathophysiological findings of the lesion, the operative results improved. However, some technical refinements still remained to be achieved. As a recent approach, lesions were removed as completely as possible by means of the anterior approach.