Surgical approaches to the Spine

Although conventional anterior and posterior surgical approaches to the spine are well established, spine surgeons are currently focusing more on minimally invasive muscle-sparing approaches to improve overall patient outcomes by limiting the morbidity associated with extensile surgical exposures. It is helpful to review conventional surgical approaches and to focus on recent developments such as lateral, oblique, and anterior approaches to the lumbar spine; minimally invasive posterior approaches to the cervical spine; and circumferential decompression of the thoracic spine through a single approach.