Macrosurgery on the spine has long been state of the art. However, access-related complications have led to the development of increasingly minimally invasive surgical techniques, which have then become widely used over the last 25 years. Minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS), however, would not be conceivable without the use of optical aids. While initially only loops were available, powerful optical aids have been developed in the last decades. These include the microscope for over 50 years, later the endoscope and more recently the exoscope. Due to its extensive field of application on the entire spine, a very wide range of indications including the minimally invasive treatment of numerous complications, a true three-dimensional vision, a variable focal depth, a coaxial xenon illumination as well as a steep learning curve, the microscope has established itself as the "gold standard" among optical aids over decades until today.

The keynote presentation is followed by an expert panel discussion with Andreas Korge, MD, Marisa Gandia, MD, Luca Papavero, MD, and Michael Dittmar Johnson, MD, where the impact of visualization options on surgical workflows as well as their future potential are addressed.