Answer to the Letter to the Editor of C. Mehren et al. entitled 'Technical Innovation?' Letter to the Editor regarding the article 'Mini-open lateral retroperitoneal lumbar spine approach using psoas muscle retraction technique. Technical report and initial results on six patients' (by K. Aghayev and F. D. Vrionis: Eur Spine J, 2013. 22(9): p. 2113-9).

摘要

Thank you for critically reviewing our article entitled "Mini-open lateral retroperitoneal lumbar spine approach using psoas muscle retraction technique. Technical report and initial results on six patients". The anterior approach to the lumbar spine has a long history. It was originally reported by Capener for spond-ylolisthesis in 1932 [1]. Ito et al. in 1934 [2] reported an anterior extraperitoneal extrapsoas approach to the lumbar spine. Careful review of his paper clearly shows that little has changed in the surgical technique since then. The reviewer should be congratulated on his pioneering work to apply minimally invasive oblique technique to degenerative spine disease [3, 4]. In our opinion it is the natural evolution of any surgical technique to be critically revised by different surgical schools to "field test" its strengths and weaknesses, especially in the light of new technologies.