Minimally Invasive Decompression of Lumbar Spine

The lumbar spinal stenosis is the most common degenerative condition of the lumbar spine. Different surgical approaches have been used to treat patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, from open laminectomy to instrumentation and arthrodesis. However both these traditional approaches have limitations. For example, the open laminectomy carries a potential risk of spine instability while the spine instrumentation is associated with an increased surgical risk and the possibility to develop an adjacent segment disease in the follow-up. In the last few years minimally invasive approaches have been developed in order to overcome the limitations of these surgical approaches. In this book the basic technique to perform the minimally invasive decompression of lumbar spine is described and some clinical cases from the surgical series of the Author are reported. The indications and the results of this technique are also briefly described. We think that this book will be especially useful for resident in neurosurgery and orthopedics and young neurosurgeons and spine surgeons.