Minimally invasive surgery in the treatment of thoracolumbar metastatic tumors

Abstract

Minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) attempts to minimize the collateral damage inflicted upon the paraspinous musculature and joints during the traditional open approaches. Preservation of muscle attachments, innervation and joint structure may provide improved post-operative axial stability, thereby allowing implementation of shorter instrumentation constructs, decreasing post-operative pain, providing earlier mobilization and shorter hospitalization duration, and making spinal surgery available to a broader patient population. In patients with metastatic cancer, wound complications or early hardware failure may delay radiation and systemic therapy and have devastating consequences in their overall treatment of cancer. The rate of wound healing may be improved by minimizing the extent of dissection and the size of the incision. We review the published experience with the implementation of MISS in patients with thoracolumbar spine metastases and provide an illustrative case.