Over the past years, the spine has developed into a “region of interest“ for endoscopic interventions.

LESS "Lang endoscopic spine surgery" was, considering the growing spectrum of indications, also developed in the area of the thoracic spine.

Various optics and a broad range of specially developed instruments round off the product range here.

There are many diseases of the thoracic and thoracolumbar spine for which an anterior approach is ideal. Most of these approaches have required a posterolateral thoracotomy to access the intervertebral disc spaces and vertebral bodies. However, the use of a lateral thoracotomy carries with it the same known incisional morbidity of any intrathoracic procedure. With the technological advances which have been made since the introduction of thoracoscopy by JACOBAEUS in 1910, a growing enthusiasm for minimally invasive surgical approaches has fostered a resurgence of interest in thoracoscpic procedures.

In the past few years, the spine has increasingly become a region of interest for endoscopic approaches. Numerous reports in literature have shown, that various spinal and discal diseases are also amenable to endoscopic surgery.
LESS was developed with the growing spectrum of indications for endoscopic spinal surgery in mind. The basic set allows endoscopic spinal surgery
for the thoracic spine and thoracolumbar region:

• Anterior grafting in burst fractures with and without neurologic deficit
• Spinal cord decompression
• Removal of thoracic disc herniations
• Vertebral biopsies
• Anterior release in scoliosis surgery
• Vertebral abscess drainage in spondylitis / spondylodiscitis

Additional instruments will allow for fracture repositioning, anterior instrumentation and - in combination with the Head-Mounted Display
technology - the option of intraoperative navigation.