Textbook of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Concepts and Surgical Techniques

Professor Yoshihisa Kotani trained in spinal surgery at Hokkaido University Hospital under the mentorship of Professor Kiyoshi Kaneda from 1989 to 2012. His clinical expertise includes spinal reconstruction and minimally invasive spine surgery.



In 2019, he joined Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan. Professor Kotani has been an active member of the (NASS), (SRS), and (SMISS). In 2019, he became the founding President of the Asia-Pacific Section of SMISS (SMISS AP) and currently serves as International Director of SMISS.



Professor Kotani has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in the field of spinal surgery and related research. His academic and clinical activities focus on the advancement and dissemination of minimally invasive spine surgery throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Professor Jin-Sung Kim (a.k.a. Luke SpineWalker) is a world-renowned spinal endoscopic surgeon at the Department of Neurosurgery, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea. He specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, full-endoscopic and biportal endoscopic spine surgery, transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, and oblique lateral interbody fusion. He has published over 280 peer-reviewed articles in the field of spine surgery and is widely regarded as one of the most influential researchers in endoscopic spine surgery. He leads international multicenter randomized controlled trials in endoscopic spine surgery and serves as principal investigator on multiple government-funded national research projects advancing endoscopic technology and surgical robotics. His institution has become a major international training hub, attracting visiting surgeons from around the world to learn his endoscopic techniques. He is the founding Director of the SpineWalker Academy, an international mentorship network for endoscopic spine surgeons. He serves as Deputy Editor of Global Spine Journal and Neurospine, International Director of SMISS, Co-president of SMISS Asia-Pacific, and as a member of the NASS ISGC and the AOSpine Steering Committee & MIS Task Force.

Professor Frank M. Phillips is the Ronald Dewald Endowed Professor at RUSH University Medical Center in Chicago. He is a world renowned spine surgeon who over the past three decades has participated in the development and pioneered numerous minimally invasive surgery techniques that are now widely adopted.  He has lectured internationally on MIS techniques and outcomes, has published over 200 scientific peer-reviewed articles, over 50 book chapters and has received numerous research awards and grants. Dr. Phillips is a founder and past president of the Society of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (SMISS), past president of the International Society for Advanced Spine Surgery (ISASS), founder and past president of the Society of Lateral Access Surgery (SOLAS) and has been the Program Chair for CSRS Annual meeting. In 2021 he received the Leon Wiltse Award for his lifetime contributions to Spinal Surgery from the North American Spine Society (NASS).