Motion Preservation in Spine Surgery: Joint-Sparing Strategies for Balancing Stability and Mobility

Dear Colleagues,

Spinal surgery has historically relied on fusion procedures to achieve segmental stabilization and long-term symptom relief. While fusion remains effective and widely adopted, it is inevitably associated with segmental rigidity, altered biomechanics, and the risk of adjacent segment degeneration. Over the past two decades, significant advances have reshaped the field, with the development of motion-preserving strategies designed to restore or maintain physiological spinal kinematics while addressing pain and neurological deficits. These innovations reflect a paradigm shift in spine surgery, moving from rigid fixation toward procedures that prioritize both stability and mobility.

Aim and Scope

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary motion-preserving approaches in spine surgery. We seek to highlight innovations in surgical techniques, implantable devices, and clinical applications that emphasize joint-sparing strategies across the whole spine. This Special Issue will serve as a platform for bolstering the understanding of how motion preservation can improve patient outcomes and reshape the future of spine care. Contributions bridging clinical practice with engineering and translational research are especially encouraged.

Cutting-edge Research

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cervical and lumbar disc arthroplasty;
• Dynamic stabilization systems and interspinous devices;
• Hybrid constructs combining fusion with motion preservation;
• Minimally invasive and robotic-assisted techniques for motion-sparing surgery;
• Advanced imaging and artificial intelligence for outcome prediction;
• Long-term outcomes, registry data, of motion-preserving techniques;
• Comparative surgical series evaluating fusion versus non-instrumented approaches;
• Studies comparing different instrumented strategies, including cage-based and non-cage lumbar fusion constructs.

What kind of papers we are soliciting

We invite the submission of original research articles, prospective and retrospective clinical studies, randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses.  Manuscripts should contribute to advancing the understanding of motion-preserving strategies and their impact on spinal biomechanics, patient quality of life, and long-term clinical success. The ultimate goal is to foster innovation while balancing the fundamental principles of stability and mobility in spine surgery.

Dr. Antonio Bocchetti
Dr. Raffaele de Falco
Guest Editors

Dr. Ciro Mastantuoni
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicina is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.