Comparison of Early Definitive Fusion and Traditional Growing Rods in Early-onset Dystrophic Scoliosis in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: A Preliminary Report

Background: Early definitive spinal fusion (EF) has been widely recommended to avoid spinal deformity progression for early-onset scoliosis (EOS) with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). In contrast, growing rod (GR) procedure has recently been recommended for EOS associated with the dystrophic type NF-1. However, no studies have compared the surgical outcomes between EF and GR procedure for EOS with NF-1. The purpose of this study was to compare the surgical outcomes of EF versus GR for early onset and dystrophic scoliosis with NF-1. Methods: This was a retrospective multicenter study; 26 EOS patients with dystrophic type of NF-1 who underwent EF (16 patients) or GR (10 patients) were investigated. We compared age at first surgery, fused levels, total number of surgeries, coronal major curve, complication rates, spinal height (T1-T12 and T1-S1 length), and forced vital capacity between the 2 groups. Results: The mean age at first surgery was 7.3 years in the EF and 5.8 years in the GR (P
Source: Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics - Category: Orthopaedics Tags: Scioliosis/Kyphosis Source Type: research