Table of Contents

Part I: Essentials in Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- We've Been Standing up for 10 Million Years.- A Historical Overview of Sciatica.- Lumbar Intervertebral Disk Injury, Herniation, and Degeneration.- Advances in Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease Pathophysiology Comprehension.- Epidemiology of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Genetics of Lumbar Disk Degeneration.- Part II: Imaging.- Imaging of Degenerative Disk Disease.- Discography.- Modic Changes and Symptomatic Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease. Is There Any Correlation?- Degenerative Marrow Changes: Natural History Biomechanics in Relation to Symptoms.- Part III: General Important Aspects When Treating Symptomatic Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Psychosocial Aspects and Work-related Issues Regarding Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Legal Aspects in the Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Cost-Effective Spinal Surgery: Reality or Oxymoron?- Outcome Measures for Spinal Surgery.- Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease: Workup and Conservative Treatment.- Facet Joint Pain: Presentation and Treatment. Is It a Myth?- Part IV: Lumbar Disk Herniations.- Advanced Scientific Considerations for Surgery in Patients with Lumbar Disk Herniation.- Surgery for Lumbar Disk Herniations.- Lumbar Disk Revision Surgery.- Part V: Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease: Doubts, Decisions, and Techniques.- The Decision to Operate: Advanced Concepts.- To Fuse or Not to Fuse: That’s the Question.- Biomechanics of the Lumbar Degenerative Intervertebral Disk.- Adjacent Segment Disease: Natural History of Lumbar Degeneration or Consequence of Fusion?- How to Obtain the Best Lumbar Lordosis.- Bone Substitutes.-Techniques for the Osteoporotic Spine That Needs Fusion.- The Choice of TLIF for Lumbar Interbody Fusion.- Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF).- Interbody Fusion through the Transpsoas Approach.- Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion.- Instrumented PLIF in Lumbar Degenerative Spine: Principles, Indications, Technical Aspects, Results, Complications, and Pitfalls.- Part VI: Minimally Invasive Techniques.- Degenerative Disk Disease: Stages of Degeneration, Low Back Pain, and Insights on Intradiscal Therapies.- Lumbar Spine Injections: An Evidence-Based Review.- Endoscopic Procedures for the Lumbar Spine: a Comprehensive View.-Minimally Invasive Lumbar Disk Herniation Surgery with Tubular Retractors: Indications and Technical Aspects.- Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF): Indications and Techniques.- Minimally Invasive Operation for Lumbar Fusion, Canal Stenosis, Degenerative Scoliosis, and Spondylolisthesis. Is It Possible?.- Spine Injections for Persistent Lumbar and Radicular Pain after Lumbar Spine Surgery.- Cell Transplantation for Lumbar Spine Degenerative Disk Disease.- Spinal Robotics: Present Indications and Trends.- Part VII: Nonfusion Technologies.- Disk Arthoplasty: A 30-Year History.- Biomechanics of Lumbar Disk Arthroplasty.- Pedicle Screw-Based Dynamic Stabilization Devices in the Lumbar Spine: Biomechanical Concepts, Technologies, Classification, and Clinical Results.- A Word from the Inventor of Intervertebral Dynamic Fixation: on Interspinous Devices.- Interspinous Process Fixation for Motion Preservation.- Part VIII: DDD and Spine Deformity and Sagittal Balance.- Degenerative Scoliosis: Surgical Treatment.- The Importance of Sagittal Balance for the Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Compensatory Mechanisms Contributing to the Maintenance of Sagittal Balance in Degenerative Diseases of the Lumbar Spine.- Posterior Impaction Osteotomy for Correction of Sagittal Imbalance in Iatrogenic Flat Back: Surgical Technique.- Part IX: Lessons from a Life.- Rational Evaluation and Management of the Patient with Spinal Pain.- Lessions Learned from a Life.- Lessons from 35 Years in the Trenches.- History of Lumbar Endoscopic Spinal Surgery and the Intradiscal Therapies.- The Importance of a Registry in Spinal Surgery.- Lessons from a Life: The Journey of Spinal Neurosurgery in the United States.

About the Author

João Luiz M. C. Pinheiro-Franco was born in 1972. He studied medicine at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Brazil, and subsequently undertook postgraduate courses in neurosurgery at the University of Strasbourg, France and the University of Tübingen, Germany. Dr. Pinheiro-Franco currently works at the Samaritano Hospital, São Paulo. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the European Spine Journal, member of the Assistant Editorial Board for Spine (Phila Pa – 1976), of the Editorial Board of Clinical Spine Surgery (former Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques) and is also Spine Section Editor of World Neurosurgery, the official journal of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS). Dr. Pinheiro-Franco is member of the elected Board of the Brazilian Spine Society (SBC) and of the Spine Committee of the WFNS. In 2013, Dr. Pinheiro-Franco was elected Academic in the prestigious centennial São Paulo Academy of Medicine. In 2014 he was invited by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and participated in the Forum Sustainable Humanity Sustainable Nature - our Responsibility (Vatican, May 2014). He has been a Visiting Surgeon at various centers in the United States and Europe.

Reviews

“This book covers the important, fascinating, and controversial subject of degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine. … The editors and authors do a wonderful job putting together a precise review of the literature on an evolving topic. It is extremely important for spine surgeons of all levels to learn new techniques and stay current on the concepts involved in arguably the most common problem we encounter every day: patients with back pain.” (Fernando Techy, Doody's Book Reviews, March, 2016)