History of spine surgery

Abstract

Even if the modern history of spine surgery can actually be dated back to the invention of radiology by Conrad R@entgen (1895) and the work by Semmelweis (1847) and Lister with the use of antiseptics (1867), in the centuries prior to the 20th, a series of relevant observations had been proposed on the pathology of the spine. The first reference to a cervical spine fracture with associated neurological disorders can be found in the Smith papyrus.