Spine

Overview

Being one of the dedicated trauma centres in Hong Kong and the only hospital in the New Territory East Cluster which provide inpatient oncology service, the Prince of Wales Hospital is responsible for the care of complex spine trauma and oncology cases. In addition, the aging and expanding population increases the demand for care of degenerative spine conditions. Our team is responsible for the surgical care of the major spinal trauma and complex spinal oncology cases in the New Territory East Cluster, in addition to surgical care of adult degenerative spinal pathologies.

Clinical Service

The most common elective surgical procedures performed by our team are those for adult degenerative spinal pathologies such as cervical myelopathy and lumbar spinal stenosis, these include TLIF (transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion), lumbar spinal stenosis decompression, cervical spine anterior fusion and cervical laminoplasty.

The field of spine surgery has undergone rapid development in the past few decades and new surgical techniques to reduce invasiveness and increase precision has been introduced, examples include:

Mini Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (MIS-TLIF)

Figure 1: small incision wounds in MIS TLIF

Endoscopic Spine Surgeries

Figure 2: Only a small wound is required in endoscopic spine surgery (left). Nervous structures are clearly visualized under magnification during operation (right)

Robotic Spine Surgeries

Use of robot in the placement of spinal instrumentations increase surgical precision and improve safety in patients with deformed spine.

Figure 3: First robotic spine surgery case in May 2025 (left). Pre op planning for surgical robot placement of spinal implants in a patient with deformed spine secondary to spinal trauma (right).

Figure 4: Pedicle screws placed through surgical robot correlated with pre op planning

The Prince of Wales Hospital is one of the 2 dedicated centres for surgical treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Apart from providing surgical support for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgeries, our team also performs spinal deformity correction surgeries for adult idiopathic and adult degenerative scoliosis cases.

Figure 5: Adult idiopathic scoliosis operated by the spine team, left side post operative X ray, right side preoperative X ray

Figure 6: Adult degenerative scoliosis case operated using Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion (OLIF) technique. Intraoperative X ray (left side) showed near complete correction of the degenerative scoliosis, compared with the preoperative X ray (right side)

Osteoporosis is a major issue in our aging population and there is an increasing admission for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. A one stop clinic for assessment and treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture has been established at the Orthopaedic Ambulatory Care Centre. This clinic includes a pre-visit DEXA (Dual energy X ray absorptiometry) scan, blood taking and X ray to guide subsequent treatment. Selected patients will receive injection of osteoporosis medications at our nurse clinic.

Training and Public Engagement

Our team actively engage in teaching activities for undergraduates and postgraduate students. Spine surgery workshops were arranged at the Orthopaedic Learning Centre.

Figure 8: Spine team member invited for public health talk

Research

Our team actively engage in clinical research and have made a number of publications on clinical spine surgery.

Selected publications since 2020: