The Concept of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Surgery, especially spine surgery, is a treatment method that comes at the cost of significant trauma and risk and should not be the treatment of choice for most conditions, therefore, minimally invasive spine surgery techniques deserve to be given high priority. Small incisions and minor surgery do not necessarily mean minimally invasive. Minimally invasive surgery in the true sense of the word aims to reduce medically induced injuries, minimize damage to normal tissues, reduce intraoperative bleeding, shorten hospital stays, reduce hospital costs, reduce the use of postoperative analgesics, resume daily postoperative activities as early as possible, and obtain the same or even better results than traditional open surgery. The development of minimally invasive spine technology in China began in the 1980s, and early inexperience and misunderstanding led to a more general, ambiguous, and limited understanding of minimally invasive spine surgery techniques. For example, the difference between microendoscopic discectomy and conventional surgery is that the working channel is different and the key steps of the operation are not “minimally invasive”; therefore, “minimally invasive access spine surgery” is a more accurate name for this type of technique. The concept of minimally invasive spine surgery has a broader meaning than “small incision”, “endoscopic surgery” and “microsurgery”, i.e. anything that can cause minimal local and systemic damage to the body and achieve the best possible outcome. The concept of minimally invasive spine surgery is broader than “small incisions”, “endoscopic surgery” and “microsurgery”.