History of spinal osteotomy

Spinal deformity is one of the oldest known diseases with descriptions documented many of the earliest civilizations. Historical treatments have had little efficacy, especially in adults. However, in the modern era, there has been a rapid expansion of new technologies and surgical techniques aided by advances in supportive care that now allow the spinal surgeon to have powerful tools to correct spinal deformity. In this manuscript, we review the origins of spinal deformity surgery and the development of spinal instrumentation. The focus of the manuscript is to review the relationship of these developments to the implementation of spinal osteotomies for deformity correction.