• Anant Mehrotra, Kavindra Singh, Soumen Kanjilal, Priyadarshi Dikshit, Ashutosh Kumar, Pawan Kumar Verma, Kuntal Kanti Das, Awadhesh Kumar Jaiswal, and Raj Kumar.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Electronic address: dranantmehrotra@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2024 Jan 1; 181: e970e977e970-e977.

ObjectiveMinimally invasive spine surgery is rapidly gaining popularity because of its versatile nature. Traditionally, prolapsed disc has been the most common disease targeted using this technique. However, its usefulness for various other diseases has also been shown in studies. We present our experience of using this technique for various spinal diseases apart from prolapsed discs.MethodsThis is a retrospective study in which patients operated on by a single surgeon from January 2019 to April 2023 were included. Cases that required conversion to open technique were excluded. Intraoperative findings and postoperative courses were obtained from patient records.ResultsA total of 47 patients were included in the study, of whom 29 were male and 18 were female. The various diseases treated comprised intradural extramedullary (IDEM) tumors (n = 23), hypertrophied/ossified ligamentum flavum (n = 9), arachnoid cysts (n = 6), dermoid/epidermoid cysts (n = 4), detethering of cord (n = 3), and posterior cervical decompression for an ossified posterior longitudinal ligament (n = 2). The average duration of surgery was 2.1 ± 1.2 hours and the mean intraoperative blood loss was 138.4 ± 59.1 mL. The mean length of hospital stay was 2.3 ± 0.9 days. Two patients had superficial wound infection and none of the operated patients had cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Re-exploration was not required in any of the operated patients.ConclusionsMinimally invasive techniques for dealing with multiple diseases involving the spine are as good as traditional open techniques, with some additional advantages of lesser tissue trauma, early return to work, and so on. However, one must overcome the steep learning curve before adopting them in day-to-day practice.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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