Endoscopic neurosurgery has reduced the morbidity of managing some specific neurosurgical conditions. Endoscopic Neurosurgery can be divided primarily into two types: Endonasal endoscopy and Transcranial endoscopy.
Endonasal endoscopy is method of using nose as a surgical corridor with the help of endoscopes. Various conditions like pituitary adenoma, CSF rhinorrhoea, anterior skull base tumors, clival lesions, odontoidectomy can be managed using endonasal approaches.
Transcranial endoscopy uses dilated ventricles as corridor for working with the endoscopes. These endoscopes are 2.7mm in diameter. Various procedures as CSF diversion for hydrocephalus, septostomy, removal of intraventricular tumors as colloid cysts, biopsy of intraventricular / paraventricular tumors as thalamic tumors can be performed using transcranial endoscopy.
Endoscopes reduce morbidity of conventional surgical methods and helps in faster recovery.
HD camera and HD endoscopes are available for performing entire spectrum of transcranial and endonasal procedures.
Endoscopy is now also very useful for spinal surgery. Percutaneous endoscopic discectomy (PELD) is a truely minimally invasive endoscopic method of discectomy.
Various endoscopes used in neurosurgery