Worldwide, neurosurgeons contributed tremendously to spinal surgery, many classic spinal procedures were named after neurosurgical giants. In China, poineer neurosurgeons began to perform various spinal surgeries since late 1950s, e.g., anterior and posterior spinal decompression, fusion, craniovertebral junction fixation, transoral decompression, etc., but due to historical reasons, like many other countries in the world, neurosurgical spine service was, more or less, limited to intradural pathologies. In Western Europe and North America, spinal surgery training was incorporated into standard neurosurgical residency curriculum from 1960s. When they finished their neurosurgical training, each neurosurgeon feels quite comfortable dealing with, not only spinal intradural pathologies, but also the whole spectrum of degenerative spinal disorders. As neurosurgeons are more familiar with neuroanatomy, microsurgical techniques, and how to protect fragile neuro tissue, they tend to have a better spinal surgical outcome compared with other specialties. Today, neurospine is the largest neurosurgical subspecialty in North America, consists of 50%-60% of neurosurgical work load. As we entered into an aging society, there is a stronger social and academic need for more neurospine specialists.

Neurological surgery is a specialty with a strong scientific and research component. As researchers learn more about the brain and spinal cord function through CT, MRI, and PET scans, neurosurgeons are the first to translate them into successful clinical usage. Since the late 20th century, minimally invasive spine surgery using miniature instruments has become a common place; modern neuroimaging and surgical navigation added another layer of safety into the spinal surgery. Overall, neurosurgical navigation has been used more commonly in cranial than spinal surgeries, but thanks to the new generation of intraoperative imaging techniques, like intraop MRI or O-arm, registration of spinal surgery navigation became less time consuming, more accurate, and readily accepted by more neurosurgeons. New biomaterials that promote spinal fusion, advanced spinal implants, and spinal fixation device emerge one after another; spinal surgery robot and stem cell restorative therapy for spinal cord function are on the horizon, this is truly an exciting era for neurospinal surgery. As for the spinal tumor surgery, new innovative techniques like ultrasound bone cutter, CUSA, laser scalpel, multimodality neuromonitoring, surgical fluorescence assistance make many previously "inoperable" spinal surgeries possible. In this section of Translational Neuroscience and Clinics, several articles address these new technologies in spinal surgery. It is gratifying to see more and more young neurosurgeons choosing neurospine as their carrier.

It became apparent that many patients with spinal disorders would need care from physicians across different specialties, e.g., neurosurgery, neurorehabilitation, orthopedics, pain management, neurology, physical therapy, etc. The concept of a comprehensive spine center which includes physicians from all above mentioned specialties probably can better meet the need of our spine patients. We should always remember that spinal surgery, like medicine as a whole, is still an imperfect art. Thus, there is an ongoing need for reanalysis and critical appraisal for each new technique. Only through such tireless efforts, we can continuously improve the growing field of neurospinal surgery and better serve our patients with spinal disorders.

None of the contributing authors have conflicts of interest.