RT Journal
A1 Karol, Lori A.
T1 Commentary on an Article by S. Bess, MD, et al.: “Complications of Growing-Rod Treatment for Early-Onset Scoliosis. Analysis of One Hundred and Forty Patients”
JF The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery
JO The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery
YR 2010
FD November 3
VO 92
IS 15
SP e27 1
OP 2
DO 10.2106/JBJS.J.01209
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.2106/JBJS.J.01209
AB 
This important paper reviews the results of growing-rod spinal instrumentation in 140 children treated by members of the Growing Spine Study Group over an eighteen-year time period. This series represents the largest cohort of patients with early-onset scoliosis treated with growing-rod instrumentation in the literature. The authors do not report on patients with a single diagnosis; instead, they include those with neuromuscular, idiopathic, and congenital scoliosis. The mean age at the time of implantation of the growing rods was six years (range, 1.7 to ten years), and the initial curve magnitude averaged 75° (range, 32° to 147°). An average of 6.4 procedures (range, two to fifteen) were performed per child. Surprisingly, only seventy-four surgical procedures were unplanned.