Background, techniques, applications, current trends, and future directions of minimally invasive endoscopic spine surgery: A review of literature

Table 1 Chronological timeline showing the technical and procedural advancements of endoscopic spine surgery

Decades	Events
1930’s	1931: Burman's “myeloscopies” in cadavers, successfully visualized the spinal cord and the nerve roots
	1936: Stern's development of new instrumentation, termed “spinascope”
	1938: Pool's myeloscopies through incisions “not over 2.5 mm”, visualized the nerve roots in great detail
1940’s-1950’s	Technological advancements in optical lens systems and the development of fiber-optics
1960’s	1963: Smith's injection of chymopapain intradiscally called "chemonucleolysis", led to “intradiscal decompression"
1970’s	1973: Kambin's and Gellmann's feasibility study of mechanical nuclear debulking by inserting Craig cannula via posterolateral approach
	1975: Hijikata preformed first percutaneous nucleotomy (posterolateral approach, < 2.6 mm)
	1977-1978: Gazi and Caspar introduced microsurgical techniques
1980’s	1982: Harms and Rolinger introduced transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions
	1983: Forst's and Hausman's introduction of arthroscopy into intervertebral disc space
	1986: Kambin further developed percutaneous discectomy
	1988: Kambin;s first endoscopy view of herniated nucleus pulposus
	1989: Schreiber, Suezawa, and Leu were the first preformed percutaneous nucleotomy under visual control and endoscope (discoscopy)
1990’s	1990: Kambin created, "Kambin Triangle", a percutaneous technique
	1990: Spine surgeons started doing minimally invasive spine surgery by magnification loupe or under microscope
	1991: Kambin and Sampson developed cannula (10 mm-23 mm) for interlaminar and transforaminal endoscopy
	1996: (Foraminoscopy) Matthew's preformed a more lateral mass route and prefomed foraminal epidural endoscopic surgery
	1997: Yeung had designed YESS endoscope and developed technique of “inside out” technique
	1998: (Foraminoascopy) Ditsworth's preformed endoscopic transforaminal procedure
	1998: Harms described the first TLIF approach as an open technique
	1998: Destandau and Foley developed tubular retractor system and endoscopy aided spine surgery through interlaminar approach
2000’s	2003: Hoogland introduced the outside- in technique using transforaminal approach
	2005-2006: Rutten and Choi extended indications and developed interlaminar endoscopic discectomy
2010’s	2013: Choi presented work flow to avoid risk of exiting root injury, a step forward in endoscopic spinal surgery

TLIF: Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion.

Table 2 Pros and cons of full endoscopy, microendoscopy, and biportal endoscopy

Technique	Pros	Cons
Full endoscopy	Least amount of tissue damage out of the three	Cannot move camera and tool independently
Microendoscopy	Space for more tools, space for implanting devices	Large portal size
		Dry environment only
Biportal endoscopy	Independence of tools	Most tissue damage out of the three
		Locating tools more
	Familiarly with other arthroscopic techniques	Challenging