The best of Global Spine Journal 2023

Highlights of the year in review

As the year comes to a close, the Global Spine Journal (GSJ) celebrates by looking back and recognizing the top articles and events of the year 2023.

An important special issue on geriatrics in spine was published In April, under the title Spine Surgery in Geriatric Patients: Recommendations of the German Society for Orthopaedics and Trauma (DGOU), led by Guest Editor Klaus Schnake. The number of geriatric patients with spinal pathologies is steadily increasing and while many are still healthy and active, terms like frailty and sarcopenia have become keywords in medical care and influence outcomes of surgical treatment. The special issue covers titles that every spine surgeon should know.

The annual GSJ Awards for the Top 2 Reviewers and Top 2 Papers of 2022 were presented by the Editors-in-Chief Jeff Wang, Jens Chapman, and Karsten Wiechert at the Global Spine Congress in Prague. The winners for Best Reviewers awards are Zach Pennington and Bryan Ashman. And the recognition for the Best Papers were awarded to:

  1. Augmented Reality-Assisted Spine Surgery: An Early Experience Demonstrating Safety and Accuracy with 218 Screws by Lindsay D. Orosz, MS PA-C, Fenil R. Bhatt, BS, Anant Tewari, BS, David Boyd, MDRita Roy, MD, Christopher R. Good, MD FACS, Thomas C. Schuler, MD, Colin M. Haines, MD, Ehsan Jazini, MD 

  2. Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Practical Approach to Diagnosis by Michael G. Fehlings, MD, PhD, Lindsay Tetreault, MD, PhD, Sukhvinder Kalsi-Ryan, BScPT, MSc, PhD, Benjamin Davies, MRCS, BSc, MPhil, MBChB(Hons), Laura Nanna-Lohkamp, MD, MSc, Philip Garwood, MB, BCh, BAO (Hons), Allan R. Martin, MD, PhD, FRCSC, Jefferson R. Wilson, MD, PhD, FRCSC, James S. Harrop, MD, MSHQS, FACS, James D. Guest, MD, PhD, FACS, Brian K. Kwon, MD, PhD, FRCSC, James Milligan, MD, Alberto Martinez Arizala, MD, FAAN, Mark R. Kotter, MD, PhD

The Editors-in-Chief Jeff Wang, Jens Chapman, and Karsten Wiechert congratulating the award winners Bryan Ashman, Lindsay Oros, and Michael Fehlings at the Global Spine Congress 2023 in Prague. Missing from pictures is Zach Pennington.

Top cited articles:

  1. Fixed-Effect vs Random-Effects Models for Meta-Analysis: 3 Points to Consider
  2. Direct Cost of Illness for Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review
  3. Seeing the Forest by Looking at the Trees: How to Interpret a Meta-Analysis Forest Plot 
  4. Comparison of Endoscopic Discectomy Versus Non-Endoscopic Discectomy for Symptomatic Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 
  5. Incidence, Risk, and Outcome of Pedicle Screw Loosening in Degenerative Lumbar Scoliosis Patients Undergoing Long-Segment Fusion 

Most read articles:

  1. Overlapping, Masquerading, and Causative Cervical Spine and Shoulder Pathology: A Systematic Review 
  2. Does Size Matter? An Analysis of the Effect of Lumbar Disc Herniation Size on the Success of Nonoperative Treatment 
  3. Craniocervical Instability in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome—A Systematic Review of Diagnostic and Surgical Treatment Criteria 
  4. Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Practical Approach to Diagnosis 
  5. Management of Cervical Spondylotic Radiculopathy: A Systematic review  

Top special issue articles:

  1. A New Framework for Investigating the Biological Basis of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy [AO Spine RECODE-DCM Research Priority Number 5]: Mechanical Stress, Vulnerability and Time 
  2. Imaging and Electrophysiology for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy [AO Spine RECODE-DCM Research Priority Number 9] 
  3. Single Position Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion With Posterior Instrumentation Utilizing Computer Navigation and Robotic Assistance: Retrospective case review and surgical technique considerations
  4. Spine Instrumented Surgery on a Budget—Tools for Lowering Cost Without Changing Outcome
  5. Bundled Payment Models in Spine Surgery

Did you already bookmark these resources:

  • The GSJ Special Collections are collections of articles grouped by topic. They are updated every month with the newest articles. All Special Collections are available here.
  • The latest issue is always available here.
  • The latest OnlineFirst articles are constantly published here.

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GSC 2023

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Join thousands of international spine surgeons at the Global Spine Congress 2025. Abstract submission closes September 12, 2024.

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