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Positioning and Safety

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Lateral Access Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

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Abstract

The lateral decubitus position has classically been used in spine surgery to gain lateral access to the vertebral column via thoracotomy and retroperitoneal approaches [1, 2]. In some cases – particularly those requiring corpectomy – a lateral approach is preferred to gain sufficient access with decreased risk to the neural elements compared to posterior approach. Currently, with the rising popularity of the minimally invasive lateral lumbar interbody fusion which was developed in the 2000s, it is more important than ever for spine surgeons to understand proper lateral decubitus positioning in order to optimize exposure and minimize the risk of iatrogenic injury to the patient [3–5].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Viren S. Vasudeva, Muhammad M. Abd-El-Barr & Yi Lu

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Michael W. Groff

Authors
  1. Viren S. Vasudeva
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  2. Muhammad M. Abd-El-Barr
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  3. Yi Lu
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  4. Michael W. Groff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael W. Groff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami Neurological Surgery, Miami, Florida, USA

    Michael Y. Wang

  2. Spine Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical Center Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York, USA

    Andrew A. Sama

  3. Dept. of Neurosurgery, University of South Florida Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Juan S. Uribe

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Vasudeva, V.S., Abd-El-Barr, M.M., Lu, Y., Groff, M.W. (2017). Positioning and Safety. In: Wang, M., Sama, A., Uribe, J. (eds) Lateral Access Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28320-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28320-3_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28318-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28320-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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