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Complications Related to Anterior Approaches

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Pitfalls in Cervical Spine Surgery

Transoral surgery is a procedure performed through the mouth to gain midline access from the sphenoid sinus rostrally to the third cervical vertebral body cau-dally [1], and it is particularly useful for lesions at the anterior aspect of the craniocervical junction [2, 3].

It has been used with varying degrees of success by numerous authors over the past century. The transoral approach, first described by Kanaval in 1919 [4] to remove a bullet locked between atlas and the base of the skull, was successively used by Scoville and Sherman in 1951 [5] for the removal of the odontoid process in basilar impression. Southwick and Robinson [6] and Mosberg and Lippman [7] described the transoral treatment of lesions of the second cervical vertebra.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 5, Padua, 35128, Italy

    Luca Denaro

  2. Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 5, Padua, 35128, Italy

    Domenico D'Avella

  3. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, Rome, 00128, Italy

    Umile Giuseppe Longo

  4. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, Rome, 00128, Italy

    Vincenzo Denaro

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  1. Luca Denaro
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  2. Domenico D'Avella
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  3. Umile Giuseppe Longo
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  4. Vincenzo Denaro
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Correspondence to Luca Denaro .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 5, Padua, 35128, Italy

    Luca Denaro  & Domenico D'Avella  & 

  2. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, Rome, 00128, Italy

    Vincenzo Denaro

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Denaro, L., D'Avella, D., Longo, U.G., Denaro, V. (2010). Complications Related to Anterior Approaches. In: Denaro, L., D'Avella, D., Denaro, V. (eds) Pitfalls in Cervical Spine Surgery. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85019-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85019-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85018-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85019-9

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