A minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion surgery method includes sequential steps of (a), aided by a guidance system, placing a guide wire in each pedicle of each vertebra of each spinal segment to be fused in a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion surgery, (b) replacing one or more of the guide wires with respective pedicle markers, and (c) performing the minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion surgery using the pedicle markers and remaining ones of the guide wires.