Volume 26, Issue 1, 2016
Table of Contents
Minimally Invasive Foraminotomy of the Cervical Spine: Improving Technique and Expanding Indications
Laura A. Snyder, Justin C. Clark, and Luis M. Tumialán
Neurosurgeons at Barrow use a minimally invasive approach in the cervical spine to treat patients who suffer from cervical radiculopathy. More recently, these motion-preserving techniques have been expanded to the management of metastatic disease and other lesions that result in spinal cord compression.
Thoracoscopy: A Minimally Invasive Approach to the Anterior Thoracic Spine
Justin C. Clark, Mark E. Oppenlander, and Curtis A. Dickman
For many years, most lesions of the thoracic spine could be surgically treated only through a large open thoracotomy incision. However, during the past 20 years, the thoracoscopic approach, which uses endoscopic techniques to operate on the anterior thoracic spine, has been developed and perfected. The senior author, Curtis A. Dickman, MD, has been at the forefront of the development and practice of the thoracoscopic approach, which offers patients a lower morbidity solution to pathologies that affect the thoracic segment of the spine.
Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques for Intradural Extramedullary Lesions of the Thoracic Spine
Laura A. Snyder, Justin C. Clark, Peter Nakaji, and Luis M. Tumialán
The authors discuss advancements in the technical aspects of minimally invasive surgical approaches, and the use of these techniques to treat patients with lesions that are intimately associated with the neural elements of the thoracic spine.
Evolution of Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Improving Patient Safety and Outcomes
Justin C. Clark, Michael Bohl, and Luis M. Tumialán
Low back pain with radiculopathy due to degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine is extremely prevalent in the United States today. Posterior decompression with fixation and interbody fusion is one of the most effective surgeries for treating instability of the lumbar spine and compression of neural elements. Many efforts are currently underway to improve the safety and efficacy of both the surgical and diagnostic techniques used to treat degenerative disease of the lumbar spine.
Robotics in Spinal Surgery: The Future is Here
Hector Soriano-Baron, Eduardo Martinez-del-Campo, Neil R. Crawford, and Nicholas Theodore
Robotic systems have been used in several types of spinal surgery, including posterior instrumentation, tumor resection, and vertebroplasty, with favorable outcomes. This review presents the advantages and disadvantages of robot-assisted spinal surgery, as well as the most common applications and different types of robots used for spinal surgery. Robot-assisted spinal surgery is an ongoing investigational field, and new research directions may lead to the development of very different robotic surgical devices in the future.