Minimally invasive procedures are increasingly utilized and are replacing open surgery to reduce scarring and pain, enhance patient recovery, and minimize cost. Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery provides step-by-step guidance, expert instruction, and detailed illustration of current minimally invasive orthopedic spine procedures. With a variety of chapters covering critical developments in the field—including the utilization of biologic materials, image-guided surgery, and bone fusion—this guide delves into discussions of indications, methods for preoperative planning, complication avoidance strategies, and patient outcomes.

Covering emerging technologies and biological advances that will result in smaller incisions, less trauma, and enhanced patient rehabilitation, this book:

• 
  
  

• Helps surgeons identify key anatomical structures for minimally invasive access
• 
  
  
• Considers preoperative planning, complications, and outcomes for all operative methods
• 
  
  
• Updates surgeons on significant advances in bone graft substitutes for spine fusion
• 
  
  
• Details decompression and mini-open surgical techniques—all intended to achieve less traumatic surgical treatments and improve patient outcomes
• 
  
  
• Includes a section on needle-based procedures for chronic pain relief
• 
  
  

ALEXANDER R. VACCARO is Professor of Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University and the Rothman Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Codirector of the Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of Delaware Valley. He is also Co-director of the Spine fellowship program and the Spinal Service. Dr Vaccaro has been honored for his research by the American Orthopedic Association, the Cervical Spine Society, and the Eastern Orthopedic Association. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Italien Accademia Europea (2002) and has been awarded the AOA Japanese Traveling Fellowship and the Scoliosis Research Society Traveling Fellowship. He is on the Board of Trustees for the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the Geoffrey Lance Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Research and Support, and the American Spinal Injury Association, and a member of countless societies such as the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, the American College of Physicians and Surgeons, the American Association of Neurologic Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons. The author of more than 600 book chapters and papers, and over 300 presentations, Dr. Vaccaro serves on Editorial Review Committees for Spine, The Spine Journal, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American and British), The Journal of Neurosurgery Spine, and the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, among others. Dr. Vaccaro received the M.D. degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. CHRISTOPHER M. BONO is Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, and Chief, Orthopaedic Spine Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Bono is also Co-director of the Combined Harvard Orthopaedic Spine Surgery Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. A fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and a member of the Spine Arthroplasty Society, the North American Spine Society, and the Orthopaedic Tra