Minimally invasive percutaneous posterior lumbar interbody fusion.

Objective: The wide exposure required for a standard posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) can cause unnecessary trauma to the lumbar musculoligamentous complex. By combining existing microendoscopic, percutaneous instrumentation and interbody technologies, a novel, minimally invasive, percutaneous PLIF technique was developed to minimize such iatrogenic tissue injury (MIP-PLIF).

Methods: The MIP-PLIF technique was validated in three cadaveric torsos with six motion segments decompressed and fused.