This volume of Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery is devoted entirely to the spine. Like other volumes in the series, it presents important recent progress in the field and offers detailed descriptions of standard procedures to assist young neurosurgeons. Among the advances considered are approaches to spinal navigation, including intraoperative imaging based navigation, and concepts of spinal robotics. The value of sagittal balance as a parameter for the neurosurgeon is examined, and a novel surgical approach to longitudinal pathologies within the spinal canal is...