The Future is UBE.
Hence BESSA.

Dr. Brenda Olivia Bueno Quiñones is a board-certified Orthopedic Surgeon from Mexico, specialized in spine surgery with a particular focus on minimally invasive and endoscopic techniques.

She completed her Orthopedic Surgery residency at UMAE Hospital de Traumatología y Ortopedia No. 21 in Monterrey, Mexico, followed by advanced subspecialty training in spine surgery at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics (INTO) – Jamil Haddad, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one of Latin America's leading centers for spine care.

Committed to staying at the forefront of innovation, Dr. Bueno went on to complete further training in minimally invasive spine surgery at Instituto da Coluna (INCOL), also in Rio de Janeiro, and a dedicated fellowship in Endoscopic Spine Surgery — including Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy (UBE) — at the Harrison Spine Center, Chungdam Hospital, in Seoul, South Korea, an internationally recognized reference center for advanced endoscopic spine techniques.

She is recognized as the first female surgeon in Mexico to perform endoscopic spine surgery, a milestone that reflects both her technical skill and her role in expanding representation in the field within the region.

Dr. Bueno is deeply committed to the growth of endoscopic and biportal spine surgery worldwide. She is active in academic and professional development, regularly serving as tutor and expert panelist at national and international spine meetings and courses, and has contributed to scientific publications focused on minimally invasive and endoscopic approaches to spine care.

Today, her work centers on advancing UBE and endoscopic spine surgery through structured education, mentorship, and the training of the next generation of spine surgeons.

I have been a neurosurgeon for sixteen years, and throughout my career, one question has continuously driven me: how can we achieve the same — or better — surgical result while doing less harm to the patient?

My training began in Paris and continued in Nantes, where I developed a broad neurosurgical practice encompassing brain, spinal cord and spine surgery. When I moved to Marseille in 2022, my practice progressively became more focused on minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery.

This is where Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy — UBE — fundamentally changed my approach to spine surgery.

UBE originated and developed in South Korea, but I quickly realized that it was much more than another minimally invasive technique. It offered something very close to the principles I had learned in microsurgery: excellent visualization, freedom of movement, anatomical precision and effective neural decompression — but through a much less invasive approach.

Since then, I have performed more than 1,600 UBE procedures, progressively expanding its use from lumbar disc herniations and spinal stenosis to more complex lumbar and cervical procedures.

But numbers are not the most important part of this journey.

What fascinates me is how UBE has changed the way I think about surgery.

A smaller approach does not mean a smaller surgery.

We can perform extensive and precise decompression while preserving muscles, joints and normal anatomy as much as possible. This can translate into less surgical trauma, earlier mobilization and a faster return to normal life.

And this is ultimately what matters to our patients.

Today, UBE is also about transmission and education.

At the ICCEME Institute in Marseille, we welcome surgeons from across Europe and around the world almost every week for operating-room immersion and surgeon-to-surgeon training. Teaching UBE has become an essential part of my work because I believe that innovation only becomes meaningful when it can be taught, reproduced and safely shared.

The next step is even more exciting.

We are working to combine endoscopic surgery, enhanced recovery pathways, clinical data, education and artificial intelligence into a new model of spine care — from patient selection and surgical planning to postoperative follow-up and prediction of functional recovery.

My goal is not to perform endoscopic surgery simply because it is technically possible.

My goal is to identify the least invasive, most precise and most effective treatment for each individual patient.

After sixteen years in neurosurgery, technology continues to evolve rapidly. Our responsibility as surgeons is to evolve with it — without ever losing sight of why we operate in the first place.

Precision is the method.
Innovation is the tool.
The patient is the point.

Dr. Dimitrios Marinopoulos is a Consultant Neurosurgeon with more than 20 years of experience in neurosurgery and minimally invasive spine surgery. He specializes in spinal endoscopy and is internationally recognized for his work in Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy (UBE). He is considered one of the pioneers of UBE in Europe and has played a significant role in the development, education, and dissemination of advanced endoscopic spine surgery techniques across the continent.

Dr. Marinopoulos currently serves as President of the European Society of Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy (ESUBE) and Secretary of the World Federation of Spine Endoscopy (WFSE). He has participated in numerous international educational activities, cadaveric workshops, scientific collaborations, and spine endoscopy training programs throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.

His clinical interests include cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal pathology, minimally invasive decompression techniques, and advanced endoscopic approaches for complex spinal disorders.