Cervical Endoscopy: Historical Perspectives, Present & Future

Endoscopy of the cervical spine traditionally has been slow to adopt. Initially, spinal endoscopy concentrated on common painful degenerative conditions of the lumbar spine, for which many of the technology breakthroughs were developed. Many of them were validated for defined clinical indications, such as a herniated disc. Stenosis applications followed later as improvements in the endoscopic platform permitted. Cervical spine application of endoscopic surgery commenced around interventional pain management with lasers and radiofrequency to improve their reliability by directly visualizing the painful pathology. Later, anterior cervical discectomies and posterior cervical foraminotomies were performed as endoscopic power burrs, and rongeurs made them possible. The most skilled surgeons moved on to perform anterior and posterior cervical spinal cord decompressions and anterior column reconstructions endoscopically further to take advantage of the potential of this platform so they could transform the traditional surgical treatments from inpatient to outpatient by performing them in a simplified manner in ambulatory surgery centers where better clinical outcomes and higher patient satisfaction could be achieved. In this chapter, the authors strove to briefly illustrate this development by giving credit to the most prominent pioneers of this fast-moving field and by setting the stage for what the reader is about to discover in this most-up-to date publication entitled: Contemporary Spinal Endoscopy: Cervical Spine.