Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery in Small Animals

Minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) seems to have many benefits for human patients and is currently used for various minor and major spine procedures. For MISS, a change in access strategy to the target location is necessary and it requires intraoperative imaging, special instrumentation, and magnification. Few veterinary studies have evaluated MISS for canine patients for spinal decompression procedures. This article discusses the general requirements for MISS and how these can be applied to veterinary spinal surgery. The current veterinary MISS literature is reviewed and suggestions are made on how to apply MISS to different spinal locations.