Cheerag D. Upadhyaya, MD, MSc and Matthew E. Fewel, MD

Department of Neurological Surgery, Kadlec Neuroscience Center, Richland, Washington

Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approaches are gaining popularity in many surgical fields. Potential advantages include reduced blood loss, shorter length of stay, and less soft-tissue trauma. Potential disadvantages include inadequate deformity correction, increased fluoroscopy, longer operative times, and decreased posterolateral fusion surface area exposure.

This video demonstrates the key steps in our mini-open transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) using an expandable tubular retractor, placement of cannulated pedicle instrumentation, and subsequent deformity correction. The video demonstrates positioning, surgical opening through a midline incision, a bilateral Wiltse plane tubular approach for the TLIF, placement of bilateral cannulated pedicle screws, and deformity correction.