In 1910, Taylor 1) described the hemilaminectomy technique.
Posterior lateral mass fusion was later added to Albee 2) and Hibbs’s technique in 1911 3) , which remained the standard for 5 decades. This was first utilized for instability in patients with Pott’s disease.
Elsberg 4) described the successful decompression of lumbar spinal stenosis in 1911.
Goldthwait was the first physician to delineate the etiopathogenesis between annulus rupture, symptoms of sciatica, and neurological signs in his publication of 1911. Further publications by Middleton and Teacher in 1911 and Christian Georg Schmorl in 1929 added to the understanding of lumbar spinal pathologies. In 1929, the Swiss neurologist Veraguth (surgery performed by Hans Brun) and the American neurosurgeon Walter Edward Dandy both published their early experiences with the surgical therapy of a herniated lumbar disc. Veraguth's contribution, however, has not been appreciated internationally to date. The causal relationship between lumbar disc pathology and sciatica remained uncertain for some years to come. The causal relationship was not confirmed until Mixter and Barr's landmark paper in 1934 describing the association of sciatica and lumbar disc herniation, after which the surgical treatment became increasingly popular. Veraguth was among the first physicians to report on the clinical course of a patient with successful resection of a herniated lumbar disc. His observations should be acknowledged in view of the limited experience and literature on this ailment at that time 5).