Minimally invasive spine surgery: What's exciting spine leaders
By Admin | October 08, 2022
While spine robots are still widely considered to be in the infancy stages, endoscopy surgery has been around for far longer. Recent years have seen more device companies develop spine robots to rival legacy platforms on the market and interest in endoscopic spine surgery has spiked because of its potential efficiency and cost-effective status in the outpatient setting.
Twelve spine surgeons discuss innovative developments in minimally invasive spine surgery and what most excites them for the future,
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What area of minimally invasive spine surgery most excites you? Why?
Nitin Bhatia, MD. UCI Health (Orange, Calif.): Minimally invasive spine surgery has been an exciting relatively recent development. The goal of MISS is to minimize trauma to surrounding tissues while still achieving the goals of more traditional “open” spine surgery, and the past 10 years have shown dramatic improvement in both the technology and surgical skills required to make MISS successful and reproducible. One of the areas in MISS which most excites me is robotics. While still in its infancy for spine surgery, robotic surgery has allowed less invasive surgery in numerous fields including prostate surgery, GI surgery and total joint replacement. With today's newer generation of robots combined with our improvement of MISS techniques, the combination of minimally invasive robotic-assisted spine surgery is extraordinarily exciting.
Brian Gantwerker, MD. The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: There is a vast world in the endoscopic spine opening up in the minimally invasive spine surgery field. As the tools improve and limits are pushed, I think we will be able to get more degenerative spine cases done through an endoscope. Once you get over the anatomical challenges and up the learning curve, it is really a great option for many patients. As an alternative to big open cases or even...(More)
For more info please read, Minimally invasive spine surgery: What's exciting spine leaders, by Becker's Spine Review
