Dr. Sang Ho Lee was invited to North American Spine Society as a invited lecturer

Section Specialty Day: Endoscopic Spine Surgery

Description:

Spine surgery is advancing towards ambulatory centers while same day surgical centers are gaining popularity among spine surgeons. As the number of complex fusion surgeries increase, especially in elderly patients with multiple comorbidities, more than ever there is a need to develop new minimally invasive revision strategies.

The endoscope has enabled spine surgeons to perform several surgeries, which previously required large incisions, through small keyhole incisions. Initial indications were routine discectomy, recurrent disc herniation, far lateral discectomy surgeries to interbody fusion through small incisions. The indications are continuously expanding to include several aspects of spine surgeries such as foraminal decompression at the level of previous fusion for optimal decompression, decompression of adjacent level, and repair and replacement of interbodies.

Patients with mild to moderate spinal deformity are often compensated and have tolerable levels of back pain. However, unilateral radicular pain resulting from foraminal stenosis can be debilitating. In select cases, an endoscopic discectomy or foraminotomy enables the surgeon to decompress the symptomatic foramen with preservation of essential biomechanical structures, delaying the need for a major deformity correction surgery.

Chairman of Wooridul Hospital, Dr. Sang Ho Lee was invited to North American Spine Society (NASS) in Orlando, USA, and gave a lecture on various cases of endoscopic disc procedure advanced techniques "Transforaminal Discectomy: What pathology can be accessed?".

Especially, he received great attention from academia by presenting successful cases of minimally invasive endoscopic procedure applied to spinal stenosis, spondylolysis, and disc disease that requires high techniques.

The North American Spine Society (NASS) was founded in 1984, as a global multidisciplinary medical society that utilizes education, research and advocacy to foster the highest quality, ethical,​ value- and evidence-based spine care. At the 32th conference, 2,000 people from 54 countries  including medical institutions and business people in a related fields were attended, and they shared their knowledge and state of the art techniques.

Moreover, this year, it has significant Implications that the endoscopy disc procedure has approved by United States health insurance for the first time, which Korea has established and developed as the leader.