Endoscopic spine surgery

SummaryAlongside conservative therapy regimes, an increasing number of surgical procedures is now available for spinal treatment. With the growing number of endoscopic techniques, the spinal surgeon has more procedures from which to choose, Endoscopic techniques are less invasive on the patient and results show a reduced rate of postoperative risks, e.g. post-diskectomy (failed back) syndrome and comorbidity. Endoscopic techniques are used for treatment of a variety of disorders of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, especially spinal disk protrusions. These techniques are also integrated in a number of spinal surgery procedures, such as thoracoscopic, laparoscopic and retroperitoneal procedures, spinal fusion operations, fracture treatment and tumour extraction. Although there is room for technical improvement and the addition of navigation systems has just begun, the preliminary results are very promising and justify the increased technical requirements and extensive training.