UBE TLIF, our experience, tips and tricks. Initial experience in an Iberic hospital (Viseu, Portugal)
https://doi.org/10.63769/1683-3295-2026-28-1-58-66
Abstract
The surgical technique has developed continuously from open surgery to minimally invasive methods and the spine surgeons are always looking for better solutions, trying to improve patient satisfaction. The concept and goal of minimally invasive surgery is to diminish the destruction of muscles and bony structures, thus reducing the pain and shortening the recovery of the operated patients. We report our first experience with UBE TLIF with normal used cages and with large cages used for OLIF. All colleagues recommend doing some decompressions by UBE technique to gain experience before attempting UBE TLIF. We broke the paradigm and started to do TLIF without any experience in performing UBE decompression. Our team is composed by a neurosurgeon and orthopedic surgeons, and the facilitating factor was some anterior experience with uniportal endoscopy, and the orthopedic surgeons were skilled in triangulation due to prior experience in arthroscopic knee surgeries. We do not advise this type of learning curve; we just want to document our experience.
About the Authors
M. Sincari
Neurosurgery Department, Unidade Local de Saúde Viseu Dão Lafões
Portugal
Portugal
M. Sincari
E. Mendes
Ortopeic Department, Unidade Local de Saúde Viseu Dão Lafões
Portugal
Portugal
E. Mendes
L. Guerra
Ortopeic Department, Unidade Local de Saúde Viseu Dão Lafões
Portugal
Portugal
L. Guerra
M.-D. Sincari
Medical Faculty of Coimbra University
Portugal
Portugal
M.-D. Sincari
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Review
For citations:
Sincari M., Mendes E., Guerra L., Sincari M. UBE TLIF, our experience, tips and tricks. Initial experience in an Iberic hospital (Viseu, Portugal). Russian journal of neurosurgery. 2026;28(1):58-66. https://doi.org/10.63769/1683-3295-2026-28-1-58-66
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