Endoscopic spine surgery—increasing usage and prominence in mainstream spine surgery and spine societies

While Dr. Parvis Kambin described the first endoscopic view of the herniated disc in 1988, technical and technological limitations prevented initial widespread adoption of spinal endoscopy (1). However, shortly thereafter, Dr. Kambin’s description of the safe working zone, Kambin’s triangle (2), helped to establish the viability of endoscopic and other minimally invasive spinal surgical (MISS) techniques. A relatively rapid expansion in the number of relevant surgical techniques followed over the next several decades.