ABSTRACT
As the millennium dawns, it is interesting to note that the concept of operating on the spine through the least damaging route and by the most precise instrumentation originated in 1937. Pool (1) illuminated a simple cannula with a modified otoscope to perform myeloscopic examination of the dorsal nerve roots in cases of herniated nucleus pulposus, hypertrophied ligamentum flavum, adhesive arachnoiditis, benign neoplasm, and metastatic carcinoma. As early as 1939, Love (2) advanced the basic principles of microdiscectomy-interlaminar removal of disk material with a small incision and without resection of bone.Minimalism in neurosurgery became centered onmicrosurgical technique in 1955 when Malis (3) employed a binocular microscope to operate with bipolar coagulation. Percutaneous discectomy started with the work of Hijikata (4) and Kambin (5) in the early and mid-1970s. Ascher (6) in 1984 was the first to utilize a Nd:YAG laser to ablate the nucleus pulposus through an 18 gauge spinal needle.
