10 randomized controlled trials with a total of 1101 patients undergoing treatment for cervical disc degeneration with either polyurethane on titanium unconstrained cervical disc (PTUCD) arthroplasty or anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) were included in the present meta-analysis. The study was carried out to clarify conflicting conclusions drawn in previous trials regarding the superiority of one intervention compared to the other. The findings of this report indicated that PTUCD arthroplasty provided greater improvements over ADCF in terms of Neck Disability Index scores, VAS neck and arm pain. PTUCD additionally improved SF-36 component summary scores, levels of adjacent segment disease, and reduced heterotopic ossification, reoperation rates, and adverse events. However, the results of this meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution as a number of outcomes had significant heterogeneity, standard deviations were imputed for some outcome measures, and sensitivity analyses were not clearly reported or conducted for a number of key outcome measures.