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Patients often show no clinical progression of AIS at long-term follow-up
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Patients who underwent posterior spinal fusion or bracing for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis had similar long term health-related quality of life as compared to the general population, according to results of a long-term study presented here.
“The treated deformity has remained stable throughout the 25 years of follow-up. If you look at the [health-related quality of life] HRQOL, you do not see much difference except in the satisfaction domain. No patients developed proximal junctional kyphosis,” Ane Simony, MD, said.
The study was named the “Best of Show” at the EuroSpine Annual Meeting.
In the study, two groups of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) were treated with either posterior spinal fusion or a Boston brace. Overall, 170 patients were available for follow-up, with an average follow-up of 24.5 years.
Simony said that for the AIS patients in the bracing group, the Cobb angle before treatment was 37.5° and the average Cobb angle after treatment was 34.7°. At 20-year follow-up, the average Cobb angle was 40.2°, she said.
Patients in the surgical group had an average Cobb angle prior to treatment of 34.5°. The average Cobb angle at 1-year follow-up was 29.5° and 32.35° at 20-year follow-up.
According to Simony, patients in the surgical group showed a small advantage over the bracing group in terms of the satisfaction domain at final follow-up. The Scoliosis Research Society 22R domain scores were similar between the two groups and the general population. – by Robert Linnehan
Reference:
Simony A, et al. Paper #76. Presented at: EuroSpine Annual Meeting; Sept. 2-4, 2015; Copenhagen, Denmark.
Disclosure: Simony reports she receives grants and research support from the Bevica Foundation.