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Lumbar Corpectomy

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The Resident's Guide to Spine Surgery

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Abstract

Indications for lumbar corpectomy in addressing spinal pathology include neurological dysfunction, axial instability pain, and intractable radicular pain that may have resulted from deterioration of the vertebral body via malignancy, infection, and trauma/fracture that requires direct decompression of the spinal canal to prevent increasing pathological kyphosis. Traditionally, open anterior approaches have been associated with injury to the great vessels, ureters, abdominal wall, and greater incisional pain, whereas posterior approaches compromise paraspinal musculature. With proper patient selection, lateral approaches to lumbar corpectomy theoretically avoid these complications. With the advent of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) of the spine, new MIS approaches are gaining in popularity due to advantages in decreased soft-tissue trauma, postoperative pain, blood loss, and immobilization. However, this minimally invasive lateral approach to the thoracolumbar spine is not without risks. This chapter will focus on the lateral access for lumbar corpectomy and its associated outcomes previously reported in the literature.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC, USA

    Danny Lee & Ryan Lee

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The George Washington University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA

    Jeffrey H. Weinreb & Uchechi Iweala

  3. Washington Spine & Scoliosis Institute at OrthoBethesda, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Joseph R. O’Brien

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  2. Ryan Lee
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  3. Jeffrey H. Weinreb
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  4. Uchechi Iweala
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  5. Joseph R. O’Brien
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Washington Spine & Scoliosis, Institute at OrthoBethesda, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Joseph R. O'Brien

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA

    S. Bobby Kalantar

  3. Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Yakima, WA, USA

    Doniel Drazin

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA

    Faheem A. Sandhu

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Lee, D., Lee, R., Weinreb, J.H., Iweala, U., O’Brien, J.R. (2020). Lumbar Corpectomy. In: O'Brien, J., Kalantar, S., Drazin, D., Sandhu, F. (eds) The Resident's Guide to Spine Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20847-9_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20847-9_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20846-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20847-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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