Abstract
Metastatic spine disease is one of the most common complications of many primary cancers. Pathological fracture and epidural metastasis can lead to intractable pain and worse spinal cord compression with severe neurologic deficit. As treatments for cancers improve, the role of surgery in the treatment of spinal metastases has been expanding because many patients live longer and are in better medical condition. In addition, for many cancer patients with metastatic spinal cord compression, surgery followed by radiation results in superior outcomes. On the other hand, extensive surgery can result in morbidity for patients with limited life expectancy. Posterior approaches are most commonly used to access the spine. For selected patients with metastatic spine disease, a thoracoscopic approach for corpectomy and stabilization can be advantageous.
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References
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on previous works by the authors Kalra RR, Schmidt MH, and Beisse R. Thoracoscopic decompression and fixation for thoracic and thoracolumbar junction lesions. In: Kim DH, Fessler RG, Regan JJ, editors. Endoscopic Spine Surgery and Instrumentation. New York: Thieme; 2016 and Ravindra VM, Brock A, Awad AW, Kalra R, Schmidt MH. The role of the mini-open thoracoscopic-assisted approach in the management of metastatic spine disease at the thoracolumbar junction. Neurosurg Focus 2016;41(2):E16.
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Schmidt, M.H. (2019). Minimally Invasive Thoracoscopic Approach to the Anterior Thoracic Spine. In: Sciubba, D. (eds) Spinal Tumor Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98422-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98422-3_8
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