title: A brief history of endoscopic spine surgery.
abstract: Few neurosurgeons practicing today have had training in the field of endoscopic spine surgery during residency or fellowship. Nevertheless, over the past 40 years individual spine surgeons from around the world have worked to create a subfield of minimally invasive spine surgery that takes the point of visualization away from the surgeon's eye or the lens of a microscope and puts it directly at the point of spine pathology. What follows is an attempt to describe the story of how endoscopic spine surgery developed and to credit some of those who have been the biggest contributors to its development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; and.
authors.forename: Albert E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Telfeian
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Veeravagu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; and.
authors.forename: Adetokunbo A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Oyelese
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; and.
authors.forename: Ziya L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Gokaslan
mesh_terms: D004724:Endoscopy / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D013131:Spine / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: VATS = video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery; endoscopic discectomy; minimally invasive; transforaminal approach