Zeitschrift für Wirbelsäulen- und Neurochirurgie

Approaches to the Cervical Spine- A Special Emphasis on the Forgotten Trotter’s Approach

Nusrath MA, McVicar IH and Siddique I

Approaches to the Cervical Spine- A Special Emphasis on the Forgotten Trotter’s Approach

In this paper the anatomy and applied anatomy of the cervical spine with approaches to the cervical spine are discussed. In the era of Robotic surgery some age old techniques may be forgotten, but however some still remain invaluable to us and should remain in the armamentarium of the Head & Neck and Spinal/ Neurosurgeon. The labiomandibuloglossotomy or the Trotter’s approach was first described in the 1920’s. This approach to the skull base/ upper cervical spine is not universally well known to the Spinal/ Neurosurgeons.