The Department of Spine Surgery (Minimally Invasive Spine Center) at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine is a comprehensive clinical center integrating clinical care, education, and research. Established in 2021, the Center is recognized as a Key Specialty of Zhejiang Province and Jinhua City. It serves as the Chairing Institution of the Zhejiang UBE Alliance under the International UBE Association and the Zhejiang Clinical Training Center of the International UBE Association.

The Center currently has 60 inpatient beds and performs nearly 2,000 spinal procedures annually, with minimally invasive surgery accounting for more than 70% of all procedures. The Center specializes in minimally invasive spinal surgery, particularly spinal endoscopy, with the goal of providing precise, effective, and tissue-sparing treatment for patients with spinal disorders.

Our minimally invasive techniques include uniportal endoscopy, biportal endoscopic spine surgery (UBE/BESS), microscopic surgery, and tubular techniques, together with muscle-sparing procedures such as percutaneous pedicle screw fixation, oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF), minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF), percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP), and percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP). Approximately 80% of patients with degenerative spinal diseases are currently treated using minimally invasive approaches.

For degenerative lumbar diseases, approximately 70–80% of surgical procedures are performed endoscopically, with an annual volume approaching 1,000 cases. Uniportal and biportal endoscopic techniques are routinely applied to lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, and isthmic spondylolysis with instability. The Center has particular expertise in UBE/BESS, including early clinical and academic contributions involving the BESS Squeeze-Lock technique for annular injuries at the lumbar endplate–annulus junction.

For cervical and thoracic disorders, the Center routinely performs endoscopic posterior cervical decompression, ULBD, hemilaminectomy, ACDF, and ACCF. It was also among the early centers to perform biportal endoscopic posterior cervical laminoplasty and upper cervical pedicle screw fixation. The Center has extensive experience applying UBE/BESS to cervical radiculopathy, cervical myelopathy, thoracic OLF, upper thoracic OPLL, and central cervical disc herniation.

The Center is committed to multimodal minimally invasive strategies, combining endoscopy with OLIF and percutaneous fixation for selected degenerative scoliosis and sagittal imbalance, and using endoscopic techniques with percutaneous fixation for appropriately selected spinal infections. Through continuous innovation and clinical refinement, the Center aims to advance minimally invasive spine surgery and improve patient recovery and clinical outcomes.