Spine surgeons around the world have come together to create the International Society of Endoscopic Spine Surgery.
Here are six key points:
1. In June, Frederick, Md.-based American Spine surgeons attended the The 5th World Congress of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery & Techniques, 15th Annual Meeting of Korean Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Society and the 5th Asian Congress of MISS. American Spine attendees included Said Osman, MD, Atif Malik, MD, and Sandeep Sherlekar, MD.
2. While attending these meetings, the surgeons discussed the creation of ISESS with other leading spine surgeons around the world. The spine surgeons envisioned a society that did not favor any person, company or country.
3. ISESS' mission involves offering fellow surgeons the knowledge and training required to successfully perform endoscopic spine surgery.
4. The society will welcome a plethora of ideas and concepts related to endoscopic spine surgery, extending the technique's availability to underserved areas around the world.
5. Endoscopic spine surgery has been slow to gain traction in the United States, with only a few surgeons performing the minimally invasive procedure in the mid 1980s to 1990s.
6. Currently, U.S. surgeons perform 1 percent of global endoscopic spine surgeries, compared to Asian surgeons performing 40 percent of global endoscopic spine surgeries.
"If we can organize to bring endoscopic spine surgery to lesser developed countries, this could have a huge impact on those populations as back pain is one of the most common symptoms that afflicts us all," said Dr. Malik, co-founder of American Spine.