gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Minimally invasive spine surgery is under intense investigation. The Easy GO system combines bimanual surgical technique with minimal muscular trauma and skin incision. Here the authors report their experience with the endoscopic spine system after 200 procedures.

Methods: The authors applied an endoscopic spine system in 200 procedures since August 2006. Here a detailed presentation of the results including advantages and disadvantages of the system is given.

Results: The 200 procedures consist of 161 surgeries for lumbar disc and spinal canal stenosis, 21 dorsal cervical decompression, 7 lateral transmuscular approaches to extraforaminal lumbar prolapses, 6 anterior cervical discectomies and 2 thoracic spinal canal stenoses. There was no emergency stopping of any procedure. In lumbar cases, there was an immediate pain relief in all patients. Three CSF leaks occurred, no root injury and no new postoperative neurological deficit. Four switches to microsurgery were performed for access problems to the prolapse (all 2006 and 2007) and one for CSF leak repair. In one case, the technique was abandoned for technical reasons. Long-term success rate scored 88% at one-year follow-up. Five reprolases were observed. Five patients were not satisfied with the results. In cervical cases, there was also an immediate pain relief in all cases. No CSF leaks occurred, no nerve root injuries were observed. Two switches to microsurgery were performed. One patient presented with worsening of his triceps paresis but the paresis completely recovered during a 3 months follow-up. At one-year follow-up, all patients were pain free. No recurrences were observed. One patient was unsatisfied with the results.

Conclusions: In all, the Easy GO system was easy and safe to handle with the standard bimanual microsurgical technique. Good postoperative results were achieved in various spinal indications. A randomized study has to be performed which compares endoscopic results with open microdiscectomy.