The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 63, Issue 2 268-287, Copyright © 1981 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Surgical treatment of adult scoliosis. A review of two hundred and twenty-two cases
S Swank, JE Lonstein, JH Moe, RB Winter and DS Bradford
We evaluated the cases of 222 patients older than twenty years in whom
scoliosis was the primary diagnosis. No patient had had prior surgical
treatment. The diagnoses were idiopathic scoliosis in 160 patients,
paralytic scoliosis in forty-four, and congenital scoliosis in eleven, and
there were miscellaneous diagnoses in seven patients. The average age of
the patients when first seen was 30.7 years. The indications for operation
were pain, progression of the curve, magnitude of the curve, and
cardiopulmonary symptoms. Preoperative traction, including halo-femoral
traction, did not result in increased correction when compared with the
initial supine side-bending roentgenogram. A one-stage fusion was performed
in 174 patients and multiple-stage procedures, in forty-eight patients. At
an average follow-up of 3.6 years the average loss of correction was 6.2
degrees, 68 per cent of the patients were free of pain, and a solid fusion
had been obtained in all but six patients. Complications developed in 53
per cent of the patients, the most common problems being pseudarthrosis,
urinary tract infection, wound infection, instrumentation problems, a
pulmonary disorder, and loss of lumbar lordosis. Paraplegia occurred in one
patient. The over-all mortality rate was 1.4 per cent. Complications
increased with age, and the highest mortality rate was in patients with
congenital scoliosis who had cor pulmonale.