Sandhu FA, Voyadzis JM, Fessler RG.  Decision Making for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. Thieme 2011, 216 pages, 128 illustrations, $74.95.

For those radiologists with a particular interest in spine imaging, this short (216 pages) softcover book Decision Making for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery will be of interest. It is one thing to establish preoperative spine imaging diagnosis, but it is another issue entirely to understand and appreciate the various surgical approaches used to treat cervical, thoracic, and lumbar problems. This takes increasing meaning when one is evaluating postoperative spine images, whether they are radiographs, CTs, or MRs.

This book is divided into 4 sections (Cervical Spine, Thoracic Spine, Lumbar Spine, and Other Considerations). The editors are three neurosurgeons, Drs. Sandhu, Voyadzis, and Fessler. The 26 authors are predominately neurosurgeons (only one is clearly identified as an orthopedic spine surgeon), so whether this flavors the approaches is uncertain, but it is most probable that the advanced procedures described here cut across specialties. What one initially sees in leafing through the book are procedures which. to a radiologist’s eye, seem to be major spine surgeries; however, we have here a book that touts surgery which is “minimally invasive”. This reviewer has to redefine his meaning of “minimally,” defining it as procedure in which the procedural approach is predominately percutaneous. In addition to describing surgical procedures in the 3 spinal areas, there are separate chapters on Stereotactic Radiotherapy (here called radiosurgery because of the application of a well defined and confined radiation dose to a very specific area), Instrumentation Systems (showing drawings of various hardware systems and how they are used), and Imaging Guidance in these Spinal Surgeons (navigations systems).

This probably will not be a book purchased by a radiologist for their own library, but the information would be worth referring to (sectional library or a surgical colleague’s library) when looking at postoperative images and trying to figure out exactly what was done.