Objective Harvest of autogenous bone from iliac crest has long been held as the gold standard for anterior lumbar arthrodesis. This technique is accompanied by an added morbidity to the pelvis. The present study was to validate the experimental result showing that harvesting bone tissue from an adjacent vertebral body for bone graft followed by replacing the defect by ?-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) plug could be a feasible procedure in lumbar interbody fusion procedure. Methods 20 patients underwent single- or multiple-level circumferential lumbar fusion with anterior cages and posterior pedicle screws in one institution. All cages were filled with cancellous bone harvested from the adjacent vertebral body, with the resulted vertebral body defect filled with a TCP plug. Results Bone grafts were successfully harvested from 28 vertebral bodies in all the patients. There was no major vascular injury, and blood loss of the anterior procedure averaged 250ml (50-350ml). One TCP plug was broken during its insertion, and one endplate was broken, both due to wrong surgical technique. These incidences did not affect the final outcome. At the last follow-up (mean 28 months), a solid lumbar spine fusion was demonstrated in all the patients. At 2-year follow up, ODI and VAS were remarkably improved (P