the evolution of spine surgery in greece in the second half of the 20th century

spine surgery began its evolution in the beginning of the 19th century in order to reach nowadays the point of being considered an important subspecialty of neurosurgery and orthopaedics. the purpose of this historical review is the search and evaluation of the progress in spine surgery in the second half of the 20th century. this review concerns the evolution of this field in greece. special references are made to the achievements of this field, to the departments that practised it, to physicians and surgeons (orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists and rheumatologists) who developed this subspecialty and to clinical and scientific work of this time period. eventually, the progress of medicine and technology who led to the first achievements of this subspecialty are shown and also that this progress followed the development of the national healthcare system. in greece, with small exceptions, the new techniques emerged with a certain delay.