SK, what Dee says is so true. I was referred to my neurosurgeon by my trusted Orthopedist. I went with the first one I saw. Young, looks like my son LOL! He described a minimally invasive surgery. But, he was not a friendly doctor. He was matter of fact, top of his class and state of the art. I was foolish to go with the first one I saw, but praise God it was the right choice. It was successful. And it turned out not to be minimally invasive. When he saw all the arthritis in there he went up a few more levels and cut calcification from bone. That's how he described it, I think... He had not expected that.
If it turns out I need surgery on the neck I'll see Dr Makker again AND two other doc's even though he did a good job.
The other thing I want to say to you is that my surgeon would not replace the disc without doing a fusion. He said it was too risky, that the disc could potentially move and that would not be a good thing. So he wanted it secured in there. Consider that if you have disc replaced.
I hope you don't feel burdened with too much information. It's a lot to take in.