A newly published article in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Journal of Neurosurgery chronicles video-assisted spine surgery’s evolution over the last nineteen years, from basic endoscopic procedures to today’s technology, which incorporates endoscopy image-guided surgery and intraoperative CT scanning.
From the AANS Journal of Neurosurgery
Authored by Dr. George Hanna, Dr. Terrence T Kim, Dr. Syed-Abdullah Uddin, Dr. Lindsey Ross, and Dr. J Patrick Johnson, Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Image-guided Spine Surgery: Evolution of 19 Years of Experience, from Endoscopy to Fully Integrated 3D Navigation details thoracoscopic procedures performed by the senior author on 160 patients.
The study found that combining interoperative CT scanning and image-guided surgery with thoracoscopic spine surgery provided significant benefits, including safer spinal cord decompression without neural manipulation, enhanced spatial orientation, and better visualization and navigation of complex spinal anatomy.