Spinal disorders are among the most common medical conditions, having a significant impact on health-related quality of life, use of health care resources and socioeconomic costs. As a therapeutic measure, spinal surgery is still one of the most rapidly growing areas in clinical medicine, and is a major contributor to the continuously increasing costs of modern-day medicine. Similarly, the increasingly aging population will have a greater need for the treatment of degenerative spinal disorders, particularly secondary spinal deformities and stenosis. However, at the same time limited health care resources will mean difficult choices in the allocation of treatment modalities
